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BESSEMER STEEL. 



ORES AND METHODS. 



NEW FACTS AKD STATISTICS KELATING TO THE TYPES OF 

MACHINEKY IN USE, THE METHODS IN VOGUE, COST AND 

CLASS OF LABOR EMPLOYED, AND THE CHARACTER 

AND AVAILABILITY OF THE ORES UTILIZED IN 

THE MANUFACTURE OF BESSEMER STEEL 

IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES; 

TOGETHER WITH OPINIONS* 

AND EXCERPTS FROM 

VARIOUS ACCEPTED 

AUTHORITIES. 



COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY 

THONIAS W. KITTCH 



// J^y 



PUBLISHED BY 
MORRISON RENSHAW, 515 PINE ST. 



f( Oof 24 1882 1 , 



ST. LOUIS, MO.: 
1882. 



'h^ 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, 

By THOMAS W. FITCH, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 









TIMES PRINTiNG HOUSE. 
VC.VOU I S.ATO. 



CONTKNTS. 



CHAPTEK I. 

ORES. 

Page. 
The quantity, quality, and cost of the Iron Ores of the United 
States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, 
Spain, and Italy, and the Manufacture of Spiegeleisen 1 to 24 

CHAPTER II. 

METHODS. 

American Steel Works— Carnegie Bro's & Co., Limited, Pitts- 
burg— North Chicago Rolling Mill Co., Chicago— Cost of 
Labor in the United States and England 25 to 36 

CHAPTER III. 

METHODS. 

Foreign Steel Works — Wilson, Cammell & Co., Dronfield, 
England— The Barrow Hematite Iron and Steel Works, 
England— West Cumberland Iron and Steel Company, 
England— The Rhymney Steel Works, England 37 to 54 

CHAPTER IV. 

METHODS. 

Foreign Works continued— The Eston Steel Works, England— 
The Steel Company of Scotland, Limited— J. Cockerill et 
Cie Steel \Yorks, Belgium ^^ to 73 



iv CONTESTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

rnz 3a5i:-3isseicek pkocils*. 

Baae lonings — I ? — Basie Pig — Afrerblcw — 
Waste — ^Basc :^ .r- . — . — : ■ ' . ~ — Cost — ^Prc^ress of 
the Xew Proces — ^Ik l - >c«^ 74 to 96 

CHAPTER VI. 

TTTF HAESISJijX 5X1:1:1. COltPAXT. 

A des^ipdc-a oi the Wor^ of die Harrison Sceel Company, 
Ae STew Baae-Be=semer Plant desigced aec(Hrding to die 
moa inqROT&j 7 " •■'' :f ~ : iem SteePWorts" conjunction, 97 to 1^ 

coxcEcsioy. 

7 1 T 123 to 125 



P R E K .^ C K 



The papers presented to the public in this Tolume were prepared at 
the request uf the Miners* and Manofacturers* Association oi St. Louis, 
during the past summer, and it was not supposed by me that anything 
further than the usual newspaper publication would ensue: many 
members of the Association, however, having expressed the opinion 
that the matter herein presented might prove of practical value to those 
engaged in rhig great industry : and although it is not improbable that 
in the haste with which the labor was done, some errors may have found 
place, in the main. 1 believe, the statements to be correct and reliable, 
and have consented to the issue of this book. 

Hoping that the work may be of benefit to its readers, 
I am. trulv vours. 




cf'ijG^ 



St. Loris, XIo., September i9, l^i. 



CHAPTER I. 



ORES. 



THE QUANTITY, QUALITY AND COST OF THE IRON ORES OF 
THE UNITED STATES, GREAT BRITAIN, GERIVIANY, FRANCE, 
BELGIUM, SWEDEN, SPAIN AND ITALY, AND MANU- 
FACTURE OF SPIEGELEISEN. 



In the following paper will be found a brief review of the 
iron ore resources of the United States, Great Britain, Ger- 
many, France, Belgium, Sweden, Spain and Italy, as ob- 
tained from reliable sources of information. 

The Iron Ores of the United States. 

Of the 8,000,000 tons of ore now annually raised in the 
United States, a portion belongs to the clay or carboniferous 
measures, while the remainder takes the form of either 
hematities or oxides. The richest ores are those of the Lake 
Superior and Lake Champlain districts. In Pennsylvania, 
Missouri, New Jersey, Alabama and Tennessee there are 
likewise large and valuable deposits of ore. For the pur- 
poses of the steel manufacturer the ores mostly in request up 
to this time have been those of Lake Superior. The open- 
ings from which the ore is obtained in this region are from 
200 to 300 feet long, from 100 to 200 feet wide and about 



(2) 

600 feet in working depth. The ore formerly cost from 
$2.50 to $4 per ton at the mines, and contains from 60 to 6Q 
per cent of metal ; it now costs from $3 to $5 at the mines for 
hematite and $6 for best specular. Sonje of the mines in 
the Lake Superior region have already been exhausted, but 
new mines have been discovered. 

Considerable deposits of a similar character exist at 
Menominee, lying to the south of the mines just referred to, 
and are now being worked extensively. In the Lake Cham- 
plain district the iron ore is found in pockets, much in the 
same manner as in the region of Lake Superior. At Port 
Henry the ore is obtained partly by open and partly by close 
mining, the former about 250 feet square by 250 in depth, 
and the latter a continuation of the mineral deposit to the 
dip. From the present floor of the quariy or open portion 
a bore hole of 140 feet passed through pure ore without 
reaching the rock. The roof of the mined portion of the 
excavation is supported by five colossal pillars of pure ores 
estimated to weigh 70,000 to 80,000 tons. The selling 
price varies from $5 to $7 ; the yield is from 60 to 62 per 
cent, but it contains too much phosphorus to be useful for 
Bessemer steel by acid process. , 

■ About eighty-five miles in a westerly direction from Phila- 
delphia is the deposit of ore known as the Cornwall banks . Its 
percentage of metal is much below that of the two districts 
already referred to, being only 50 to 55 per cent. Ii is per- 
haps the most cheaply worked mass of ore in the world. It 
lies in the form of a ridge nearly three-quarters of a mile 
long, having a width of 500 feet, and a height m some places 
of 350 feet above the surrounding plain, wnd a depth below 
it of 50 to 180 feet. 

The ore is so soft in texture that a man for a day's work 
can blast and load 10 tons into the wagons, which ascend the 
hill by a spiral locomotive railway cut m the ore all the way. 



(3) 

The produce of Cornwall banks is contaminated "with sul- 
phur — possibly the most sulphureous ore of its kind in the 
world. This deleterious ingredient is in a great measure 
removed in the blast furnaces by the copious use of lime, 
and the ore being free from phosphorus, the resulting pig 
iron is in favor at the Bessemer steel works. The producing 
powers of this remarkable accumulation of ore are very 
large, probably — if fully exercised — amounting to some 
thousands of tons per day. 

^ At a distance of about eighty miles in a south by west 
direction from the city of St. Louis lies the Iron Mountain, 
and in its vicinity are the deposits of Pilot Knob and Shep- 
herd Mountain. The mineral of the specular variety is very 
hard and dense. / The first mentioned, and by far the most 
important of the three deposits, is an irregularly-shaped 
deposit in many places of clean solid ore of various thick- 
nesses up to seventy or eighty feet. The ore sells at St. 
Louis at about $8 per ton, and it yields about 67 per cent 
of iron. In former times it was delivered at $6 per ton. 
The second quality of ore, containing from 50 to 60 per 
cent of iron, and which is too high in phosphorus for the 
acid process is sold for about one-half the price asked for 
the first quality ore. 

The mineral at Pilot Knob occurs as a bed or seam about 
thirty feet in thickness. It is very hard, and in consequence 
more expensive to work than that obtained at the Iron 
Mountain. It is also less rich in metal, being only 56 or 57 j)er 
cent, and sells at St. Louis at about $7 per ton. The second 
quality of this ore brings only about one-half the price of 
the first, and these second ores are suitable for the Basic 
process, although unfit for the acid process. 

About 100 miles in a south-westerly direction from the 
City of St. Louis in the Counties of Dent, Crawford, and 
Phelps, which section is known as the "Southwest Ore Dis- 



(4) 

trict," there has been developed a large number of ore 
banks extending over a considerable area. The Simmons 
Mountain and the Cherry Valley bank have yielded nearly 
550,000 tons of ore, and large amounts are still in sight yet 
undeveloped. In Iron County there is evidence of large 
deposits of ore which have been verified liy shaft prospect- 
ing. The character of the ore in these counties is blue, 
specular, and red hematite, usually found mixed in the same 
mine, the specular appearing in large boulders. The aver- 
age of numerous analyses, made by Prof. Wuth of Pitts- 
burg, demonstrates these ores to l)e low in silicious matter, 
and varying as to phosphorus from 0.04 to 0.12, and that 
they are almost absolutely free from sulphur. The specular 
contains about 66 per cent of metallic iron and the red hem- 
atite about 55 per cent of metallic iron. 

> The ores of New Jersey belong chiefly to that class kno^\T[i 
as magnetite, but the deposits are thinner than those of 
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Missouri, and are more costly 
to get. • 

The ore lies in veins varying in width from a foot or two 
to forty feet, but in the larger masses foreign matters are 
interspersed. The cost, under circumstances differing so 
widely varies much. From $3.75 to $4.75, including 5 jDer 
cent for rent, is said to represent the cost price of the ore at 
the pit's mouth. The percentage of iron is about 55, but 
the content of phosphorus unfits the New Jersey ore gener- 
ally for the Bessemer acid process. 

In various localities among the elevated regions of the Apa- 
lachian chain, and in the adjacent low lands, as well as else- 
where, are found deposits of the hydrated oxide of iron or 
brown iron ore. This ore contains so much foreign matter 
that it requires washing. Delivered at the blastfurnaces its 
cost is about $3 per ton. It contains more phosphorus than 
the magnetic ores of New Jersey. 



(5) 

In Virginia brown ore, yielding 50 per cent of iron, is mined 
for 50 cents per ton, and delivered at the blast furnaces for 
about $1.50 per ton. Large deposits of this kind of ore are 
also found in the States of Alabama and Georo-ia, yieldino; 
from 45 to 50 per cent of iron, and costing about $1.25 per 
ton delivered at the iron works, which, of course, are near 
to the mines. Hitherto the presence of phosphorus has pre- 
vented this ore from being employed for Bessemer steel ma- 
king ; l)ut the complete elimination of phosphorus being now 
an accomplished fact, this stone can be adopted for such a 
purpose. 

The Red Mountain, of Alabama, is a fossil ore deposit, 
extending over seventy miles. The vein has a working width 
of about ten feet, and the ore is of good quality to probably 100 
or 150 feet, when it becomes too calcareous as a rule. Many 
millions of tons are already proved in this ridge, which is in 
the midst of coal fields, and beino^ rapidly developed by the fur- 
naces at Birmingham. Its average richness in iron is about 
52 per cent. Its cost at mines is about $1.25 ; cost to furna- 
ces owning mines (i. e., mining expenses), 85 cents. 

Large de^Dosits of red fossiliferous ore are found in the 
Apalachian chain, sometimes exceeding thirty feet in thick- 
ness. This ore yields in the furnace about 40 per cent of 
iron, and it is extracted for about 50 cents per ton. In the 
nortJi of Tennessee the same description of ore is found in 
considerable quantities, but the cost of working it is so nuich 
greater that it costs about $2.50 per ton at the works. North- 
wards this bed of fossiliferous ore gradually diminishes in 
thickness. The iron obtained from the fossiliferous bed is 
of fair quality. 

Among other deposits of ore in the United States remark- 
able both for quantity and quality may be classed that in the 
Cranberry vein in North Carolina. It has been worked at 
its eastern extremity on a small scale for some years, and 



(6) 

has recently been traced for miles in a westerly direction 
through the Smoky Momitains. 

Taking all the iron ore raised in Great Britain, Mr. 1. L, 
Bell has estimated its average per centage of iron to be a 
trifle under 35 per cent ; whereas the produce of the mines 
of the United States, similarl}^ considered, Avill be about 5(3 
per cent, which means that for each ton of iron made there 
is 20 cwt. 'less ore to be dealt with by the American ironmas- 
ter. 

Less than 12 1-2 per cent of the total quantity raised in 
Great Britain is lit for the Bessemer acid process ; whereas 
in the United States almost one third of the produce of its 
mines is sufficiently free from phosphorus to furnish iron fit 
for Bessemer purposes by the acid process. 

There is quite a large amount of iron ore at Iron Ridge, 
Wis., distant about 160 miles by rail from Chicago, owned 
by the North Chicago Rolhng Mill Company, and will be used 
by them for making basic pig metal in their blastfurnaces at 
South Chicago. It is a cheap ore, easily mined, and by 
analysis contains — iron, 51 percent; phosphorus, l.S-l per 
cent ; silicon, 5 per cent. 

The production of iron ore in the Lake Superior district 
in 1881 in gross tons was 2,336,335 ; in State of New Jersey 
in 1881, 737,052; in Lake Champlain district, New York, 
1881, 637,r)00; in Cornwall ore bank, Pennsylvania, 1881, 
249,050 ; total i)roduction of iron ore in census year 1880, 
net tons, 7,974,705 ; imports of iron ore in 1881, 782,887. 

In view of the large amount of iron ore contained in the 
United States, it appears surprising that we should have im- 
ported nearly 800,000 tons last year, but that was caused by 
the scarcity of ores mined, suitable for the manufacture of 
Bessemer pig for the acid process, for which there was a 
large demand, and consequently high prices were charged 
for the domestic ores. 



(7) 

It would seem, however, by the followmg figures, that the 
foreign ores cost nearly as much at the furnace as the high 
priced ores of the Northern States, and that the real remedy 
lies in a more extensive use of the cheap ores of the South- 
ern States for the production of steel at less cost. 

The minimum prices free on board ship are about : com- 
mon! ore, 48 and 51 per cwt., at Parmau, say $1.50 ; com- 
mon ore, 48 and 51 per cwt., at Carthagena, say $1.75; 
rich pure ore, 55 and 58 per cwt., at Bilboa, say $2.00 ; rich 
pure ore, 65 per cwt., at Marbella, say $3.00 ; rich pure ore, 
65 per cwt., at Elba, say $3.00 ; rich pure ore, 52 per cwt., 
at Oran, say $2.20. To these prices must be added freight, 
insurance, and landing charges. Steamer freights for the 
year 1881, on ore per ton, averaged about $3.00 ; the duty is 
20 per cent ad valorum, so that Bilboa ore would cost on 
dock in this country about $5.40 ; and the Marbella and 
Elban ore, which is quite as good as Lake Superior ore, 
would cost $6.60 at dock. Adding the landing charges and 
inland freight would make the cost of these imported 
ores about $8.40 at Pittsburg for Bilboa, and $9.60 for 
Marbella. 

The Manufacture of Spiegeleisen in America. 

Up to the present time the greater part of the spiegeleisen 
used in the Bessemer Steel Works of America has been 
imported from Europe. 

In 1870, the manufacture of spiegeleisen was undertaken 
by the New Jersey Zinc Company, at Newark, N. J., which 
has three furnaces, each 20 x 7 feet, with a combined annual 
capacity of 5,000 gross tons. In 1872, they produced 4,072 
tons ; in 1873, 3,930 tons : in 1874, 4,070 tons. The spie- 
geleisen made by this company is said to be equal to the 
best that is imported, and is, therefore, readily sold. 



(8) 

The following are two analyses of it : 

Iron 83.250 83.23 

Manganese 11.596 11.67 

Phosphorus 196 .19 

Silicon 367 .99 

Carbon 4.632 4.02 



Total 100.031 100.10 

Pig iron that is rich in manganese, and almost free from 
phosphorus, silicon, and sulphm-, is required for use as 
siDiegeleisen. 

In 1875, the Bethlehem Iron Company and the Cambria 
Iron Company commenced to make spiegeleisen from Span- 
ish ores. 

In the same year the Woodstock Iron Company undertook 
the manufacture of spiegeleisen from the rich ores of Ala- 
bama. It is expected that before long America will be quite 
independent of European supplies of this material. Three 
States made spiegeleisen in 1881 — New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Ohio ; the total production for the year was 
21,086 net tons, of which 16,276 net tons were made in 
Pennsylvania by Carnegie Bros. & Co., Limited, and by the 
Cambria Iron Company. 

The manganese of Arkansas is mainly developed in Inde- 
pendence County. It is here not in veins but in mass 
deposits, much like limonite in occurrence, but more solid 
and regular. These ores will yield about 40 to 50 per cent 
manganese, and are in large quantities, and new discoveries 
are being made monthly. It is probable that no deposits as 
large as these have yet been discovered in America of this 
class of ore. Much of it is low in phosphorus and suitable 
for Spiegel, but being low in iron would require admixture 
of iron ore in the furnace. 



The Iron Ores of Great Britain. 

The Bessemer process heretofore has been dependent on 
ores of exceptional purity, and since steel has so largely 
taken the place of iron, the supply of such ores had l)eeome 
a question of paramount importance in relation to the future 
of this industry. 

In the manufacture of steel by the Bessemer system acid 
process much aboye one-tenth of a unit per cent of phos- 
phorus renders pig iron unfit for use. Ores, therefore, that 
contain, as the great bulk of English ores do, a much larger 
percentage of phosphorus have not hitherto been utilized, 
because practically all this deleterious matter finds its way 
into the ore. 

Of the total quantity of iron ore raised in Great Britain, 
I. L. Bell has calculated that less than 12 1-2 per cent 
is fit for the Bessemer steel manufacture by the acid process, 
but by the basic process the clay and calcareous ores of the 
United Kingdom are now used in the manufacture of Bes- 
semer steel. 

About 1<S,500,000 tons of iron ore of all kinds are now 
annually used in the United Kingdom. 

Hematites, which are the ores hitherto almost exclusiyely 
used in the Bessemer process, are contributed mainly by 
Lancashire and Cumberland, these counties furnishing 
indeed about 90 per cent of the total production of this kind 
of ore in the United Kingdom. 

The richest deposits of English hematite ores are found in 
the Furness and Whitehaven districts. 

The somewhat uncertain conditions under which much of 
the hematite ores of the northwest coast are found cause 
them to be more expensive than the ordinary clay or calcare- 
ous ironstones. I. L. Bell puts the cost of Cumberland ore 
at $2.50 at the mine, and states also that the payment of 



(10) 



royalty amounts to 75 cents per ton. To the same authority 
we are indebted for the information that the approximate 
<;ost of conveying the minerals required for the manufacture 
of a ton of hematite iron in this district is greater than that 
of any other district in the United Kingdom, except South 
Wales, as the following tabulated statement of the approxi- 
mate cost of conveying the minerals required for making 
one ton of pig iron in Great Britain shows : 



CARRIAGE OF FUEL. 

West of Scotland cwts. 44 $ .44 

West of Scotland '' 65 47 

South Staffordshire.... " 40 37 

Cumberland " 24.... 2.39 

Lancashire " 24 2.45 

Lincolnshire " 25 2.44 

South Wales " 40 44 

Middlesborough '•' 26 75 

CARRIAGE OF LIME STONE. 

West of Scotland cwts. 14 .... $ .29 

West of Scotland " 14 42 

South Staffordshire ... " 10 12 

Oumberland " 8 14 

Lancashire "■ 8 14 

Lincolnshire '• 00 

South Wales '•'• 15 IS 

Middlesborough '' 12 37 



CARRIAGE OF ORE. 

cwts. 43 



38. 
55. 
36. 
36. 
70. 
45. 
65. 



i .94 
1.03 

.69 
1.13 
1.13 

.69 
3.38 
1.00 



TOTAL, 



..$1.67 
. 1.92 

1.18 
, 3.66 

3.72 
. 3.13 

4.00 
■ 2.12 



The united make of the above is equal to iive-sixths of the 
entire kingdom. 

The amount of iron ore (including chrome) imported 

into the United Kingdom during the year 1881 was as follows : 

Tons. Value. 

Newport 532,226 £458,538 

Cardiff 447,449 376,084 

Middlesborough 389,093 382,087 

Newcastle 252.817 237,900 

Glasgow 197,804 241.441 

Swansea 94.194 88.201 

Stockton 85,179 76,821 



(11) 

Sunderland 75.309 75,309 

Workington 51,678 54,519 

Chester 43.738 48,089 

Ardrosan 42.209 44,680 

Hull 38.482 48,221 

Fleetwood 31.045 30,240 

Liverpool 30.225 39,119 

SouthShields 29,203 27,378 

Hartlepool 20,656 21,550 

2,361,407 £2.250.846 

Otherportsunder 20,000 tons each.. 89,291 98,565 

2,450,698 £2,349,411 

A calculation of these totals shows the value per ton of 
ore to be about $4.70 in our money. 

The manufacture of siDiegeleisen in Great Britain is largely 
increasing, and now amounts to nearly 100,000 tons annually, 
of which the largest quantity is produced in South Wales. 

The Iron Ores of Germany. 

The iron ore resources of Germany embrace nearly all 
principal varieties of the mineral, including bog ore, brown 
hematite, spathic carbonate, blackband, clay ironstone, 
hematite, limonite, and magnetic ore. The chief mining 
district is that of Bonn, which embraces Westphalia, the 
Rhine, Hesse-Nassau, and Waldeck. In this district there 
aa-e about 950 separate mines, producing 1,500,000 tons of 
ore per annum. The next most productive district is that of 
Silesia, where there are about 100 mines, yielding about 
500,000 tons yearly. The largest yield is obtained from the 
magnetic deposits, whence 1,250,000 tons are annually 
extracted. The spathic deposits are next in importance, 
yielding from 600,000 to 700,000 tons per annum, and fol- 
lowino- these come the hematites, of which about 500,000 
tons are annuallv raised. 



(12) 

All the indigenous ores of Germany are expensive when 
compared with those native to England and America, if the 
deposits of Alsace-Lorraine are excepted. In Rhenish Prussia 
specular iron ore costs about $5.00 perton ; red hematite, with 
45 per cent iron, $2.75 per ton ; brown hematite, $3.50 per 
ton ; and spathic carbonates, $4.50 perton, delivered at works. 
At the Kcenigin-Marien-Huette Works, which are said to 
be the largest of their kind in Saxony, mild Bessemer steely 
is made, containing a considerable percentage of manganese 
and without spiegeleisen. The ores are obtained from 80 
different mines belonging to the owners of the works, and are 
situated in various parts of Saxony, Bavaria, and Thuringen. 
The average percentage of iron is as follows : Red hema- 
tites, from lodes in granite, in the Saxon Eizgeberge, contain 
manganese, but free from phosphorus, up to 55 per cent of 
iron. More silicious varieties from Bavaria contain 45 per 
cent. Magnetic ores, Saxon, up to 60 per cent ; Bavarian, up 
to 40 per cent, the latter being somewhat pyritic. Brown 
iron ores and altered spathic ores, up to 35 per cent ; liassic 
ore from Upper Franconia, somewhat sandy, up to 40 per 
cent ; spathic ores from Thuringen and Ruess, up to 35 per 
cent ; nodular clay iron ore from the coal measures of 
Zwickau, up to 40 per cent. 

The brown ores and coal measure carbonates are roasted 
in heaps ; the other kinds are charged in the furnace without 
roasting. The charges for Bessemer iron consist of mixtures 
of red hematite and spathic ores, the other varieties being 
used in the furnaces producing foundry and forge pig iron. 
The average composition of the Bessemer pig is shown by 
the following analysis : 

Carbon, combined 1.095 

Carbon, graphitic • • • • • 2.936 

Silicon 2.200 

Manganese 3.450 

Phosphorus 0.070 to 0.120 

Sulphur trace. 



(13) 

In Germany, spiegeleisen was formerly produced by char- 
coal out of manganiferous iron ores, its singular peculiarity 
being due to the presence of 10 to 12 per cent of mangan- 
ese, on which the Bessemer process depends for its success. 

The average consumption of charcoal per 100 pounds pig 
metal was about 120 pounds ; the average daily production 
during the year about 4 1-2 tons. 

In the practical working of the furnace the spathic ores 
yielded about 38 per cent of iron. But on account of the 
devastation of the forests, and of the scarcity of hard wood 
suitable for conversion into good charcoal, this fuel soon 
after 1859 proved insufficient to produce the spiegeleisen 
wanted, and it became necessary to replace the charcoal by 
coke. 

German Spiegeleisen and Ferro Manganese. 

The first development of manufacturing spiegeleisen by 
means of coke was attended by many difficulties which at 
times seemed insurmountable, but they were finally over- 
come and quantities of the new iron was soon introduced 
into the rolling mills and other works and found preferable 
to the best iron previously known, and the only kind that 
would enable Bessemer steel manufacturers successfully to 
carry out the process. Ever since that time the demand has 
exceeded the supply 

Two specialties in which the German ironmasters have had 
more experience than those of other countries are the manu- 
facture of spiegeleisen and fcrro manganese, and to the pro- 
duction of Basic pig. In the Rhenish Provinces and in West- 
phalia, spathic ores from the Siegen District are smelted with 
a slight addition of highly manganiferous limonites. The 
calcined spathic ores average 48 per cent of iron and 9.5 per 
cent of manganese, while a specimen of the limonites, moist, 
ran 18 per cent of iron, 14 per cent of manganese, 0.2 per 



( 1^) 

cent of phosphoric acid, and 25 per cent of moisture. 
Selected spathic ores aknie would do for making ordinary 
Spiegel running 10 to 12 per cent; but as they are scarce, 
an addition of ores richer in manganese is generally made. 
Manganese has a strong tendency to enter into the cinder, 
so that, with good working of the furnace, from 40 to 50 
per cent of the entire quantity in the ore is found in it ; the 
percentage of manganese in the cinder ranging from 6 to 9 
per cent. It does not pay to attempt to put more than 60 per 
cent of the manganese contents of the ore into the spiegel, 
because the consumption of coke runs up too high, the pro-' 
duction declines, and the spiegel shows gray spots, due to 
the presence of silicon, which makes it unsalal^le. A trial 
at Oberhausen with the ordinary charge yielded mottled 
metal holding 14.5 per cent of manganese and whitish-gray 
cinder containing only 3 per cent of manganese. Hot blast 
is beneficial in the manufacture of spiegel, but it is possible 
to supplant any lack of heat in the blast by an increase in 
the charge of coke. The method of charging appears to 
have very little effect upon the manufacture of spiegel — a 
fact which Herr Schilling attributes to the fusibility of ores 
and cinder. The hearth must be carefully investigated, 
because the spiegel corrodes the brick work rapidly, and 
escapes through the smallest cracks. It seems that the 10 
to 12 per cent of manganese is alloyed perfectly with the 
iron, because many analyses made of the first and last por- 
tions of a cast show no difference in the percentage of man- 
ganese. The Geisweid and Wissen furnaces have the largest 
production, 3aelding 80 tons of spiegel per day, the consump- 
tion of coke is about 2,400 lbs. per ton, with a temperature 
of blast of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. 

In running on higher grades of spiegel, 19 to 21 per cent, 
the limonites are used in greater quantity, and as they are 
high in gangue, the yield of the charges declines to 38 per 



( 15) 

cent, and the proportion of cinder to metal becomes more 
unfavorable. On an average, only 60 per cent of the man- 
ganese in the ore goes into the metal. The proportion 
between high grade and ordinary spiegel in reference to ore 
in charge is 28 to 33 respectively ; as to the production, it is 
7 to 10 ; and as to consumption of coke, it is 14 to 10. This 
grade of spiegel does not cut the furnace much, nor does it 
form accretions, so that the furnace can be run for months 
uninterruptedly. In changing the furnace from low to high- 
grade spiegel, it is advisable to make the first charges par- 
ticularly rich in manganese, so that there is no inconvenience 
through the casting of a series of intermediate grades. Of 
late the German works have been forced to import high- 
grade ores from Cartagena, Spain, because their own run too 
high in phosphorus. The cinder made in casting high-grade 
spiegel is more basic, and does not contain quite as much 
manganese as that resulting from the smelting of ordinary 
spiegel. The brown smoke issuing from the stack, how- 
ever, proves, that in making 20 per cent spiegel, the loss 
through volatilization of manganese beo-ins to tell. 

The great difficulty first experienced in making f erro man- 
ganese was the formation of accretions, especially with 
furnaces provided with a cinder-notch. The furnaces made 
only runs averaging from one month to ten weeks. This 
has now been overcome, and they are made to produce reg- 
ularly for ten months. In making ferro manganese, the 
losses of manganese are not confined to its being carried off 
in the cinder. In running on 60 to 70 per cent metal, as 
much as 17 per cent of the mauganese in the ore is volatilized, 
the loss being much greater even on 80 per cent ferro man- 
ganese. The cinder obtained in producing 40 per cent metal 
holds about 7 per cent of manganese, which runs up to 10 
per cent as the grade approaches 75 per cent. From 18 to 
20 per cent of manganese enters into the cinder Avhen the 



( 1<3 ) 

ores are too easily fusible. On an average, the yield of 
manganese is 6(3 per cent of the quantity contained in the 
ore. In Oberhausen, the production of (iO per cent ferro 
manganese is 700 tons per month, the grade being very 
uniformly maintained. The German founders of spiegel- 
eisen have, therefore, succeeded, during the last ten years, 
in overcoming many of the vexatious inequalities of work- 
ing and of product attending the smelting of highly manga- 
niferous ores. 

The Iron Ores of France. 

The future of the steel trade of France must, of course, 
be largely determined l)y the extent and duration of its sup- 
jilies of iron ore suitable for the manufacture of that metal. 
The total production of native ore has been returned by Prof. 
Jordan at 3,000,000 tons. Of this quantity 150,000 tons 
are magnetic ore, brown hematites and spathose ore, 300,000 
tons are red hematite, 1,000,000 tons are oolitic ore, and 
1,550,000 tons are hydrated ores of various kinds. 

About one-half of the ore used is imported from Bel- 
gium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Algiers and other countries, 
principal!}^ from Spain and Algiers. 

The deposits of iron ore in France, although numerous 
enough, are either so limited in importance or so coarse in 
quality that they are incapable of feeding any considerable 
number of blast furnaces, with the single exception of the 
great oolitic formation in the east of the country. 

The largest field of red hematite is in the department of the 
Ard'eche, near the towns of Privas and La Voulte, and it is 
worked for the supply of the blast furnaces of the Horme, 
Terre Noire, La Voulte Besseges companies. The produc- 
tion varies from 250,000 to 300,000 tons a year. 

The most extensive iron ore field of France is the great 
oolitic deposit which originates in the Belgian portion of 



(17) 

Luxembourg, and extends through Lorraine up to and be- 
yond Nancy, in the Upper Moselle valley. The yield of iron 
contained in the ores varies from 20 to 35 per cent ; the pro- 
portion of phosphoric acid, feeble enough at times, not un- 
frequently goes up to 1 per cent, and this is especially the 
«ase in the calcareous ores, and in some parts even as much 
as 1.75 per cent has been found. With regard to sulphur 
traceable to the existence of some pyrites, it is only feebly, 
but still sensibly manifested in the ores of the Lower Mo- 
selle, but it disappears altogether from those of the Upper 
Moselle. By making a careful classification and selection of 
the productions of the various layers, skillful ironmasters 
succeed in manufacturing iron of very good commercial 
quality out of the ores in question. 

France lost a considerable portion of these ore deposits by 
the war of 1870-71 ; amongst others those of Hayange and 
Mayeuvre (now belonging to Alsace-Lorraine), w^hich sup- 
ply the blast furnaces of Messrs. de Wendel -with ores yield- 
ing as much as 35 per cent iron. Prior to the full settlement 
of the dephosphorization problem these ores have been un- 
suited to the manufacture of steel, Init the phosphoric ores 
of the Moselle are now adapted for steel making purposes, 
and the prospects of France in reference to this industry 
assume a much more favorable complexion. 

France has imported deposits of spathose iron ore in the 
Alps and Pyrenees. The sparry or spathose iron worked in 
the department of the Ise're has for many years past been 
supplied to the few and unimportant works scattered up and 
down that slope of the Dauphiny Alps, but it is only recently 
that patiently conducted researches, over a period of several 
years, have demonstrated the importance of the great deposit 
at Allevard, of w^hich Schneider & Co. are now the proprietors. 

The Allevard ore is a quadri-carbonate of iron, manganese, 
lime and magnesia, wherein the iron greatly predominates. 



(18) 

accompanied by a silicious gangue. It is almost entirely ex- 
empt from phosphorus. According to Messrs. Schneider, 
the ores contain in their raw state 32 per cent iron and 2 to 
6 per cent manganese, with only .02 per cent of phosphoric 
acid. 

In the Franche-Compte and Berry districts there are de- 
posits of granular hydrated iron ores, containing scarcely a 
trace of phosphorus and from 34 to 70 per cent of iron. 
About 350,000 tons are annualh^-aised from these deposits, 
but the cost of working is too heavy to adapt the ores for 
other purposes, of the highest class. 

The average yield of all the French ores has been esti- 
mated by Jordan to be about 38 per cent. Alike in quality, 
therefore, and in quantity, the indigenous iron ore supplies 
of France are yet inferior to those of either Great Britain 
or America. 

The Iron Ores of Belgium. 

As the native ores of Belgium are neither sufficient in 
quantity nor equal in quality to the supply of the steel 
works, the great bulk of the ores in this manufacture are 
imported. Among the ores indigenous to Belgium are the 
oligist (specular ore) and carbonated iron, found in the pri- 
mary soil in layers underlying the schistose beds. Generally 
the limonites form pockets, sometimes connected with car- 
bonated iron. The iron veins are entirely limonitous. The 
most important deposit in the shape of la^^ers is that of 
oligist (specular ore), which, in the environs of Yedrin, is 
remarkable for its unbrokenness and extent. It is composed 
of several layers more or less near each other in stratifica- 
tion, corresponding with the quartz schisto'se-condrusian 
stage. Its northern flat joins nearly vertically the bed of 
the southern border of the carboniferous basin, to which it 
serves as a cover. The use of the oligist is becoming very 



(19) 

extensive, and it is exported into France and Germany. The 
limonite is found especia% in pockets, sometimes in a state 
of real veins, and formed by the decomposition of the 
pyrites. It produces strong iron of excellent quality. Its 
output is nearly altogether used by the Belgium iron work- 
ers. Its principal beds may be grouped as follows: (A), 
ores of Entre-Sambre et Meuse ; (B), ores of the Scheld ; 
(C), ores of the Meuse; (D), ores of the Ourthe ; (E), 
ores of the Vesdre ; (F), ores of the Luxembourg; (G), 
ores of the Campine ; (H), ores of the Brabant. 

The carbonated iron is only met with in partial beds. The 
sparry iron ore of the coal mines accompanies some beds, of 
which it pervades the roof and the wall. 

Little more, however, than 1,000,000 tons of ore are 
annually raised in Belgium itself, and al)out an equal quan- 
tity is imported ; but notwithstanding these drawbacks, the 
Seraing works compete favorably for Bessemer rail orders 
with t'he most advantageously situated works in the United 
ffingdom. Of coal and coke the Belgium steel works have 
an unlimited supply close at hand. 

The iron industry, of Belgium was saved from complete 
ruin from want of ores or fuel at three distinct periods of 
its history. When charcoal became scarce and the use of 
coke stepped in to replace it, Huart-Chapelle, at Marcinelle, 
in 1854; Lejeune, at Hourpessur Samble ; Hansnet, at 
Cauvin, and John Cockerill, at Seraing, were the leaders of 
the coke movement. Then, again, when the ironstone of 
the country had in a great measure l)een worked out, the 
owners of the blast furnaces of Ougree in 1853 discovered 
how to utilize the vast beds of hematite scattered over the 
country, which had not been used since 1790, because they 
produced coal short iron. The process adopted consisted in 
mixing a certain proportion of the shales of the neighbor- 
ing coal measures along with the ore in the furnace. And, 



(20) 

lastly, when these hematite ores became quite insufficient for 
Belgium consumption, the ninettes of the Grand Duchy of 
Luxembourg came into notice, and have continued to this 
day a chief resource. With collieries, most of which 
are worked under very great difficulties, with ores which 
have to be carried a hundred miles or more, with laborers 
who are physically incapable of doing anything like the 
work of an English workman, the Belgians have l)y dint of 
care, order, and especially economy in minor details, been 
enabled to hold their own as iron makers among the nations 
of the earth, and to compete in distant markets with Great 
Britain. 

The Iron Ores of Sweden. 

Sweden contains a variety of iron ores, some of them of 
remarkable purity. The mountain ores, or magnetites and 
specular ores of Sweden, belong, geologically, with but few 
exceptions, to the primitive formations, the beds being in 
general much raised and folded, so that the dip is often 
more nearly vertical than horizontal. The beds are fre- 
quently abruptly cutoff by dykes and cross courses of various 
eruptive rocks. The thickness of the ore beds varies from 
nearly nothing to 100 to loO feet. The Swedish ores, accord- 
ing to Prof. Akerman, may be classed in three groups — the 
first occurring in euritic gneiss, and which arc remarkable 
for their richness in quartz ; the second, lying in the gneiss 
rocks proper, and notable for their contents in magnesia, and 
which, although often smelted with but a minute quanti-ty of 
lime, at other times can not be worked with the addition of 
both lime and quartz ; the third class of iron ores are prin- 
cipally distinguished by the proportion of maganese, and 
often occur Jn the limestone ; they are either magnetites or 
peroxide ores. The hirge bulk of Swedish ores need flux- 
ing with lime in order to yield a glassy slag, 30 per cent and 



(21) 

upwards of limestone l>eing often requisite for that purpose. 
As typical "mixing stone" for the Bessemer manufacture, 
the ores of Gronrot and Korberg, which contain fi'om 6 to 
10 per cent of protoxide of manganese, may be mentioned, 
as also those from Penning, containing 12 to 14 per cent. 
The still richer ores of Swatl)urg, Schiss}i:tan , which hold as 
much as 13 to 20 per cent of the latter valuable substance, are 
unfortunately accompanied by so much sulphur that they are 
better suited for making spiegel iron than Bessemer pig. 
The contents of the iron of the Swedish ores varies between 
30 and 70 per cent, but it most frequently lies between 45 
and 50. The best Swedish ores are well known to contain 
very little phosphorus ; those of Dannemora, about .003 per 
cent ; those of Persburg, .005 per cent. It is, however, 
generally found in practice to vary between .005 and .05 per 
cent. The greater numl^er of silicious specular ores are 
very free from phosphorus, and some of the magnetic ores 
have also an exceedingly small proportion of sulphur, 
although most of the magnetic ores are so interspersed with 
metallic sulphides (pyrites) that they must be subjected to a 
very careful calcining before going to the furnace. The 
temperature of the kilns may be kept so high that the 
most refractory ores come to sintering, and many ores pre- 
viously rejected on account of their high contents of sulphur 
have thus been made serviceable. Some exceptional Swedish 
ores are not infrequently mixed with bitumen, some with 
graphite, but oftener with titanium, which, when abundant, 
increases, as is well known, the consumption of charcoal 
necessary for their reduction to a very costly extent. 

The greatest drawback to the development of the metal- 
lurgical industry of Sweden is the scarcity and poor quality 
of its fossil fuel. Coal is found only in the most southern 
part of the country — in Skane and in Southern Holhuid — and 
as it is not only a long distance from the principal deposits 



(22) 

of iron ore, but contains much ash, and is unsuitable for 
coking, it is of very little use for metallurgical purposes. In 
no other part of Sweden is there any likelihood of finding 
coal, for the rocks which form the mass of the country be- 
long to the Laurentian or primitive formation and to the 
Silurian period, while the more recent deposits have been 
formed during the latest geological period. Although in 
Skane or Scania there are none of the magnetite and specu- 
lar ores on which the iron industry of Sweden is based, it is 
considered not impossible that the argillaceous ores may be 
found, and in this case a trade may spring up in the manu- 
facture of the commoner kinds of iron ; but for the purpose 
of steel m-mufacture, Sweden practically occupies the posi- 
tion of a country destitute of fossil fuel ; and hence, except- 
ing in so far as native charcoal is employed, it depends for 
its supplies of fuel on England. This dependence is likely 
to become greater from year to year, for the forests of Swe- 
den will not support any great addition to the demands now 
made upon them. Already in the neighborhood of the iron 
mines the supply of charcoal is beginning to fail, causing iron 
and steel makers to go further afield, and thus enhancing the 
cost of the fuel and augmenting the cost of production. With 
all these drawbacks, it is scarcely prol:>able that the steel 
manufacture of Sweden will roach a much greater develop- 
ment than it has already attained, while both in steel and in 
iron the metallurgy of Sweden must in the future even more 
than in the past be distinguished for relative superiority in 
the markets of the world. 

Spain. 

Spain contriliutes very materially to the manufacture of 
steel in other countries. England, France, Germany, and 
Belgium depend more upon Spain than upon any other coun- 
try for their supplies of iron ore suitable for the Bessemer 



{ -o ) 

acid process. These ores are chiefly hydrous red, brown, 
and yellow hematites and spathic carbonates, occurring in 
the cretaceous formation, and traversing it in the form of 
great lodes or veins, from 100 to 300 feet wide, w^hich, 
although frequently more or less coincident with the strike 
of the stratification of the beds of limestone, shales or sand- 
stones which form the "country," do not always follow the 
dip or underlay of the beds in depth, and, at places, they 
diveroe and break throuo'h the sedimentarv strata. The 
upper portion of these deposits, for a few feet, to even a 
hundred or more feet downwards from the surface, consists 
of hydrated oxide of iron, of a red, brown, or yellow color, 
free, or very nearly free, from sulphur or phosphorus. At 
greater depths, however, they invariably change into white or 
grey spathic carbonate of iron (sometimes containing specks 
of pyrites), which is the original mineral from which, by 
atmospheric agencies, the oxidized iron, which fo»'ms the 
more superficial portion of the deposits, has ])een formed. 
Since the spathic iron ore is infinitely harder and more expen- 
sive to work, besides not containing more than from 40 to 45 
j^er cent of metallic iron, the workings hitherto have, in all 
the mines, been confined to the extraction of the richer oxi- 
dized surface ores, which contain from 50 to GO per cent iron, 
and require little or no blasting. Eventually, however, as 
the mines get deejjer, the spathose ore must liecome the 
staple of exportation, but they must undergo calcination to 
reach 60 per cent of metallic iron. Attention has also l^een 
directed to working the rich magnetic iron ores which are 
found abundantly in the south of Si)ain ; amongst others, 
the extensive outcrop of iron ore at Marbella, about midway 
between Gibraltar and Malaga. This is a compact magnetic 
oxide of iron, containing an average of about GO per cent 
of metallic iron. 

It was not until 1870 that the mines of Bilboa and Mar- 



(24) 

bella began to be worked to any extent ; and yet the output 
of iron ores from these two districts has now reached many 
millions of tons. 

In 1881, 3,239 vessels laden with 2,500,532 tons of ore 
sailed from the river of Bilboa for foreign ports, and the 
largest single cargo was 1,690 tons. The export for the 
first quarter of 1882, exceeded that of the corresponding- 
period in the previous year by 53,000 tons. The quantity 
of red ore exported exceeds that of other kinds, and unless 
other deposits are discovered, the present rate of output 
will cause an exhaustion in about ten years. The brown ore 
which is in sufficient quantity to last for a long time to 
come, must, therefore, be considered as the main source of 
future supply. 

Italy. 

The most important of the iron districts of Italy is Tus- 
cany, which comprises also the Island of Elba, from which 
large shipments of ore are made to other countries engaged 
in the manufacture of steel by the Bessemer acid process. 

The analyses of these ores show : 



Sesquioxide of iron 

Oxide of manganese 

Aluuiina 

Li lue 

Magnesia 

Silica 

Copper 

Sulphur 

Phospliorus 

Insoluble rock 

Water and loss 

Percentage of metallic iron 



Calamita. 



<J4.()7 
0.33 



3.28 

0.04 

0.03 

trace 

1.65 



Terranera. 



93.36 

trace 

0.58 

0.16 

0.17 



0.11 

none 

3.64 

1 98 



Rio. 



87 84 
0.07 
3.47 
0.22 
0.34 
5.97 

6.17 
0.01 

1.91 



100.00 
66.27 



100.00 
65.35 



100.00 
61.81 



CHAPTER II. 



METHODS. 

AMERICAN STEEL, WORKS CARNEGIE BROS. & CO., LIMITED, 

PITTSBURG NORTH CHICAGO ROLLING MILL CO., 

CHICAGO COST OF LABOR IN THE UNITED 

STATES AND ENGLAND. 



In this paper will be described a few selected steel works 
of the world, and special attention will be j^aid the type 
of the machinery in use, the methods in vogue, and the 
class of labor employed l)y these corporations in the manu- 
facture of Bessemer stt^el. 

There are in this country at present fifteen works operated 
on the Bessemer system, with thirty-seven converters that 
are capable of producing in the neighborhood of 2, 000, 000 
tons of Bessemer steel annually, according to the capacity 
converters are made to produce in the United States. 

Carnegie Bros. & Co., Limited. 

The steel works of Carnegie Bros. & Co., Limited, will 
first be placed before you. These works are located on the 
main branch of the Pennsylvania railroad, eleven miles east 
of Pittsburg The surface area of the works covers about 
106 acres, and they enjoy a river frontage on the Mononga- 
hela river of 3,300 feet, in addition to the railroad facilities 
afforded by the Pennsylvania railroad, which traverses the 
plant. The water supply, which is abundant, is procured 
from the river, being carried to a well, at which pumps ai'e 



(26) 

placed ; thence discharged into tanks, from which supply 
pipes lead to the works. The works are surrounded by a 
complete system of tracks. Within the past two years im- 
portant improvements in blast furnace practice have been 
successfully inaugurated here. Their C furnace, blown 
November 8, 1880, turned out by September 1, 1881, 
45,028 tons of Bessemer pig iron, this production being an 
average of 1,070 tons per week for six consecutive weeks ; 
.later the furnace made 1,276 tons per week, and has now 
reached a weekly product of 1,500 tons. The dimensions 
of this furnace are : Height, 79 feet ; bosh, 20 feet ; 
hearth, 9 feet ; and it has eight tuyeres, three pounds pillar 
of blast, three Cowper stoves, 60 feet high and 20 feet in 
diameter; temperature of blast, 1,100'^. 

Furnace C is duplicated in furnace B. 

In furnace D — their new furnace — the product runs up to 
1,640 tons per week, and about 299 tons of gray metal have 
been made in a day's time ; recently this furnace reached a 
production of about 1,807 tons per week. 

These figures will be all the more interesting when it is 
remembered that ten years ago 700 tons per week was con- 
sidered an extraordinary yield of the Lucy furnace ; 100 
tons per day in a furnace being unheard of. Since then 
these Pittsburg furnaces have made 900, 1,100, 1,200, 1,400, 
1,500, 1,640 and 1,807 tons per week and neiirly 300 tons in 
one day. It is not difficult to define the reasons for this 
exceedingly large output. It may be reasonably ascribed to 
large hearths, inserted tuyeres, good fuel, good stoves, high 
temperature of blast, say 1,300*^ to IjSOO"', and plenty of air. 

The dimensions of furnace D are : Height of stack, 79 
feet 4 inches ; diameter, just under the gas outlet, 17 feet 6 
inches ; the bosh is 20 feet in diameter, and tapers gradually 
to 17 feet 6 inches to a point 7 feet 4 inches below the 
top, from which it tapers to a diameter of 14 feet at the 



( 27 ) 

outlet. There is a gradual incline from the bosh to the top 
of the crucible of from 20 feet to 11 feet 6 inches; the 
depth of the crucible is 8 feet 6 inches ; center of cinder 
notch to top of hearth, 3 feet G inches. Such are the inter- 
nal dimensions of the furnace which has run out more metal 
in twenty-four hours than any other furnace in the world. 

Furnace D is duplicated in furnace E. 

In the converting department are three vessels, ten tons 
capacity and made concentric, the nose bemg central and 
upright w^hen the vessel is blowing, which permits of the 
metal beins; taken in at the rear of the vessel. The em- 
ployment of three vessels allows of two being always in use 
and thereby delay at the six cupolas is entirely avoided. 
The cupolas have 8 feet inside lining, 8 ounces pressure of 
blast, and each of them has a melting capacity of 300 tons 
of i^ig daily. The blast supply is furnished to the convert- 
ers by the blowing engines at a pressure of 25 pounds to 
the square inch. All the machinery is manipulated by 
hydraulic cranes mth a pressure of 300 pounds to the 
square inch. 

Much of the capacity of the American works for rapid 
production is due to their general arrangement. The En- 
glish vessel centers (excepting only in the latest plant) 
stand but 3 or 4 feet above the general floor, causing the 
bottom of the casting pit to fall 8 or 9 feet below it, and 
in this cramped and unventilated space must be performed 
the largest and hottest manual labor, for there the steel is 
poured, and the red hot ingots and moulds handled by the 
men. The vessel centers, on the contrary, are found 9 feet 
above the general floor in the American plant, and the pit is 
only 48 inches in depth — just sufficient in depth for conven- 
ience in casting. Therefore all the operations of casting 
are performed, and all the ingots and moulds handled by 
workmen on the general floor of the building. The freest 



( 28 ) 

of ventilation, easy access and short lifting of moulds are 
thus obtained. 

The high vessel, in addition, permits of the removal of 
the converter bottoms upon the general floor, and by means 
of the platforms around the vessels at the level of their 
center a second story of working rooms is provided ; and 
from this platform the runners are accessible for repairs 
and the noses for the insertion of scrap. 

The rail mills of Carnegie Bros. & Co., Limited, bloom 
laro;e ingots and roll blooms into sino;le and double lenijth 
rails, and the same driving and finishing machinery, which 
is independent, is used. For rails the three sets of rolls 
next to the engine are utilized, and the other two sets of 
rolls are employed for rolling billets, etc. While the rail 
mills are running the rolls may be changed, so that the 
Avhole plant can be engaged on an order for merchant sec- 
tions without delaying the rail plant. That by this method 
billets and merchant steel are produced with greater cheap- 
ness it is not difficult to understand. 

Attached to this mill are eleven Siemens heating furnaces 
and twenty-eight gas producers in five blocks, a sheet iron 
cooling tube, leading overhead to the brick gas flue, and 
two chimneys, each having 6 feet clear diameter, and which 
are 98 feet high. Hydraulic charging and drawing machinery 
is also connected with the three ingot furnaces. The 
14-inch, three or four-rail ingots are placed in the convert- 
ing works, while hot, in their respective seats, on a car, 
ready for charging into the furnaces, and the car is drawn 
b}'^ a locomotive to the front of the heating furnace with an 
entire Bessemer heat of ingots. This car is so constructed 
that a long peel can be thrust by hand under the ingot, and 
by passing the chain around the stationary sheave and hook- 
ing it upon the end of the peel and then giving water to the 
hydraulic cylinder, the chain drives the peel and the ingot 



(29) 

upon it into the furnace. The ingot is then tipped off by 
tlie workmen with the aid of the handles, the peel is with- 
drawn and slipped under another ingot, which the car con- 
veys to the front of the door into which it is to l)e charged. 
In front of each furnace door is a fixed sheave, and the 
hydraulic cylinders lie under the frames that hold the sheaves. 
The ingots are withdrawn upon the liogie which takes them 
to the blooming train hy sliding over them the yoke to which 
the chain is then attached. 

The ingots are bloomed in two 3-higli trains — one 32 and 
the other o() inches — after heating in one of the furnaces. 
The trains are driven 1)V non-condensino; horizontal eni»ines. 

The blooming train has feeding rollers driven b}^ an inde- 
pendent engine, and also hydraulic cylinders for raising the 
feedino' tallies, turnin«: the ino-ots over and movino- the 
middle roll, in order to vary the size of the passes as required. 
A telegraph leads to a 3-ton hammer, and another to the 
shears. A hydraulic crane places the blooms in bogies, and 
they are taken to tlie reheating furnaces before passing to 
the rail train. The rail train consists of three stands of 
3-high 23-inch rolls, to which are coupled billet and merchant 
rolls as before explained. It is driven by a 46-inch cylinder 
by 4 feet stroke engine, with a 50-ton fly wheel. Two 
sets of carrying rollers, driven liy a saw engine (by means 
of reversing friction clutches), carry the rolled piece from 
])oth these sets of rolls to the saw carriage. Either one or 
both saws may be used, depending upon the kind and length 
of the product. Carrying rollers, driven by reversing fric- 
tion clutches from the saw engine, then take the rolled 
piece to either of the curving machines and hot beds. The 
place of the usual hot straight engine plate is occupied by 
long carrying rollers. Lying upon these rollers the rails 
are pressed l)y hydraulic fingers against stops, which are so 
arranged as to give the rail such a curvature that it will be 



( 30 ) 

nearly straight when cold. Then, by fingers on an endless 
cham, it is moved out upon either of the hot beds. One man 
and a boy, by means of levers, operate all this moving and 
curving machinery and also the saws. The rails instead of 
being twisted and bent into short curves, as they are by hand 
straightening and curving, are carried by this method with- 
out distortion to the hot bed. As a result they cool almost 
straight, and are not injured by the gags in cold straighten- 
ing. 

The rails are passed from the other ends of the hot bed to 
the cold straightening presses ; thence to the cold beds ; 
thence to the drilling machine, and, if necessary, to the slot- 
ting machines ; and lastly out of the mill to the rail. yard. 
The power of these machines is furnished by an 18x24-inch 
engine. All rails not of exact lengths are made so by cold saws 
run by 11x20 inch engines. When double length rails are 
rolled, the piece is divided in the middle by the hot saw only, 
and the two fag ends are made the exact length by the cold 
saw. 

The present production of these progressive works per 
week is estimated at — Blast furnaces, 5,000 tons ; convert- 
ing department, 6,000 tons ; rail and billet mills, 5,000 tons. 

North Chicago Rolling Mill Company. 

Another advanced w^orks of this country is the new plant 
of the North Chicago Rolling Mill Company, located at South 
Chicasro. The works consist of four blast furnaces 75 feet 
hio-li and 21 feet bosh and 9 feet hearth. Coke from the 
Connellsville district, near Pittsburg, is the fuel used. The 
different ores are stocked under the overhead railroad tracks, 
each having an allotted space and thus facilitating efficient 
mixing. The limestone is stocked in the yard in a similar 
manner and the coke supply is housed in a shed 367 feet 
lomr and 99 feet wide. 



(31) 

The works are supplied with fire-briclc stoves 60 feet high 
and 21 feet in diameter, vertical condensing blowing engines, 
84 inches in diameter air cylinders, 36 inches in diameter 
steam, 54-inch stroke, thirty to thirty-five strokes per min- 
ute, and 72 boilers 36 feet long, 4 feet diameter. The 
measurements of the building in which the boilers are placed 
are 248x96 feet. These four blast furnaces have a capacity 
of no less than 5,000 tons of metal per week. The converting 
house is some 600 feet from the blast furnaces and consists 
of three 10-ton converters placed side by side. The blast 
of twenty-five pounds to the square inch is supplied by 
two horizontal engines with steam cylinder 42-inch bore 
and 60-inch stroke ; air cylinder, 66-inch bore and 60-inch 
stroke. 

The pressure pumps for handling the cranes in the steel 
works are situated in the same building as the blowing 
engines, and are under the control of the same eno'ineer. 
They supply 350 pounds water pressure to the square inch. 
The ladle cranes in the steel works have a backward and for- 
ward action, with the usual up and down movement. This 
converting department is capable of producing 7,000 tons of 
steel per week, and the general arrangements have been made 
to effect economical output. The main building is 108x113 
feet. The spiegel cupola building abuts upon the main con- 
verting building, with a jDassageway in the wall 18 feet by 6 
inches, for the convenience of the runners. The house is 66 
feet 4 inches by 55 feet 6 inches, and contains four cupolas 
of the common form for melting spiegeleisen. The molten 
metal is taken from the blast furnace up an inclined plane 
on a narrow gauge track three feet above and in line with 
the vessel in which the metal is to be converted. 

The lining department is situated immediately in the rear 
of the converting house, about fifty feet distant, and is con- 
nected by a line of railroad track running from the hoist. 



( 32 ) 

situated under the vessels in the steel works, to a turntable 
iu the center of the lining department. From this turntable 
a series of short railroad tracks are laid in such form as to 
accommodate ladles or vessels bottoms, as the case may be. 
These ladles or bottoms are placed upon a cast iron truck 
made for this purpose and run exactly under a fire-proof 
bonnet, which is supplied with gas from six gas producers, 
placed close by the lining building. The Inulding for the 
lining department is mainly constructed for the operation of 
the basic process, but the details for this object are not yet 
put in, but at the end of the building where the lining and 
drying for the acid process is done the results are very sat- 
isfactory. 

Immediately after the ingots are cast they are taken to the 
rail mill and charged in heating furnaces, where they receive 
a uniform heat ; thence they arc taken to n o-higli train 
of rolls, which constitute at one and the same time a set of 
blooming and roughing rolls. The ingot is 12 1-2 inches 
square, and the bloom leaves the rolls formed for a rail or 
other shape required. The center of the last pass in these 
rolls is in line with the center of the first pass in the finishing 
rolls. The S-high set of rolls is 40 inches in diameter and 

in length, and is driven by a horizontal engine, 42 inches 

in bore, 48 inches stroke, sixty-five revolutions per minute 
and a fly wheel of fifty-two tons. The finishing set of rolls 
are 2-hio:h and reversino;. The formed bloom is carried into 
these rolls by a line of short feed rollers, driven hyaline of 
shaftings underneath, delivering the piece into the first pass 
of working rolls, and it i.s then run through each consecutive 
groove, being guided into them by an automatic pusher, until 
the finished bar is produced of three or more lengths as 
required. These rolls are driven by a pair of reversing com- 
pound engines with high pressure cylinder 42 inches bore, 42 
inches stroke, low pressure cylinder, 72 inches bore, 42 inches 



( 33 ) 

stroke, running 140 revolutions per minute. After the bar 
is finished it is passed on rollers to a single saw and there 
cut as desired, being regulated by a revolving stop guided 
by a workman. The lengths, when cut, are passed upon 
rollers between two hot beds, where they receive the neces- 
sary sweep l)y a line of lingers, tixed upon a horizontal shaft 
controlled by a small engine. The rails which are set to 
sweep are passed by a circular bar operated by an endless 
wire rope on two or more pulleys, situated at the extreme 
ends of the hot beds. These beds are located on each side 
of the sweeping or bending machine exactly opposite each 
other, and a rail is placed on each alternately, thus giving 
the rails ample time for cooling before being drilled. The 
drilling and slotting is effected hy tiie usual methods. 

These works were planned and constructed to simplify the 
productions of steel by a saving of labor, especially skilled 
labor, and by a saving of fuel. To accomplish this, heavy 
and the most approved machinery has been specially adopted 
to insure a more direct and rapid production of Bessemer 
steel. The economical advantages of the type of machinery 
and the methods of working possessed by this mill over the 
other steel works of the United States, in expert estimation, 
places the North Chicago Steel Company in the front rank 
of Bessemer steel practice in the United States. 

These are two of the most advanced of the steel works of 
the United States in their respective though different types 
of machinery and methods of working. 

Cost of Labor in the U. S. and England. 

The average cost of labor per ton of pig iron in the United 
States is about $2.00, and in England about $1.00. 

According to the present practice of working in the United 
States, the cost of labor per ton of steel ingots from the 
pig is about $2.50 ; and for reducing ingots to rail the cost 



( 34 ) 

of labor is about $5.50, a total of $10.00 per ton from the 
ore for labor, against about $3.50 per ton in England. 

The table below shows the cost of pig iron in the Cleve- 
land district, England, for one-half year to March 31, 1879 
(al' minerals are given at about cost price). The company 
own and mine their own minerals : 

Quant ty used. Prices Cost per Ton 
Tons. Lbs. at Works. of Iron. 

Ironstone 3, 5G5 $0,976 $3.20 

Coul (Calcining) 210 .11 

Cike 1, 203 2.56 2.79 

Limestone 1. 51 .89 .45 

Wages .69 

Stoves and Repairs .17 

Rates and Taxes .08 



Total $7.49 

Note. — Tlie average cost per ton, however, in England, is about $10.00. 

The cost of a ton of pig at the furnaces in the Pittsburg 
district in the first part of 1879, is stated to be as follows : 



Ironstone 

Coal (Calcining) . . . 

Coke 

Limestone 

Wages 

Stoves and Repairs. 
Taxes 



Quantity 


Prices at 


Cost per Ton 


used. 


Works. 


of Iron. 


1.7 


$9.00 


$15.30 


none. 






1.25 


2.56% 


3.20 


.75 


1.15 


•71K 
1 25 
.50 
.10 






$21.07 



Total...., 

The transportation on raw materials is given at $10.27| 
in the United States, against $2.00 in England. 

The prices in Pittsburg for puddling or boiling iron May 
30, 1881, were fixed at a minimum of $5.50 per ton, to be 
advanced when selling price exceeded 2^ cts. per pound. Of 
this sum the puddlers' helpers received about one-third. 
At Philadelphia, July 24, 1880, the minimum price was 



(35) 

fixed at $4.00, and is still at that figure. These represent 
the wages in the two sections. In England the same class 
of Avorkmen — August 1, 1881, a period of prosperity and 
good prices — received, per ton, $1.75. 

The following are the approximate rates of wages for men 
employed in the iron rolling mills in the Western States : 

Guide mill roller, per daj' $12.50 

Guide mill heater, per day 7.10 

Roughers. 3.55 

Heaters' helper 2.10 

Bar mill rollers 8.00 

Heaters 5 90 

Helper 2.00 

Straighteuer 1.75 

Plate mill roller 12.50 

Heater 7.95 

Catcher 3.90 

Puddler 4.75 

Puddlers' helper 2.40 

Shinglers 8.00 

Shinglers' assistant 3.75 

Muck roller 10.00 

Ordinary laborers 1.50 

Machinist $2.50 to 3.00 

Blacksmith 2.75 to 3.25 

The rates of wages in most of the Shefiield trades have 
been kept up to the standard of five years ago, and in many 
cases they have been advanced, notwithstanding the great 
depression in business. But, although the rates have ad- 
vanced, the amounts actually earned are much diminished, 
from the fact that there is so much less work to be done. 
The fact must be considered, however, that men can now 
earn larger amounts in a given time than in former years on 
account of the increased facilities, which enables them to 
work much more rapidly. For instance, the steel for round, 
half-round, flat, and three square files was formerly made 
square, and the file forger was obliged to hammer it into the 



( 36) 

required shape. The same was true of steel for cutlery, 
iucludmg razors, edge tools, and many other articles. Now 
the steel comes to the hand of the forger from the manu- 
facturer already rolled into shapes suited for the various 
purposes for which it is designed, thus saving much time 
and trouble to the forger. The use of machinery also in 
many operations which were formerly done l^y hand labor, 
is greatly to the advantage of the workman, since he now 
receives as much ]3er dozen for the articles he makes as he 
did formerly, when he could only turn out one-half or two- 
thirds as many m a day. In such cases machinery has been 
the friend of the workingman, although he has been in the 
habit of looking upon it as his enemy. 

The following are approximately the rates of wages paid 
in England : 

Puddlers, per day $1.50 

Helpers 90 

Shinglers 2.25 

Assistants ' 1.50 

Rollers 2.00 

Assistants 1.25 

Plate rollers 3.00 

Heaters 2.75 

Laborers 90 

Machinists 1.25 

Blacksmiths 1.50 



CHAPTER III 



METHODS. 

FOREIGN STEEL WORKS WILSON, CAMMELL & CO., DRONFIELT), 

ENGLAND THE BARROW HEMATITE IRON AND STEEL 

WORKS, ENGLAND WEST CUMBERLAND IRON AND 

STEEL COMPANY, ENGLAND THE RHYMNEY 

STEEL WORKS, ENGLAND. 



Steel Works of Wilson, Cammell & Co., Dronfield, 
England. 

The steel works of Wilson, Cammell & Co., Droulield, 
Eno-land, are of the old Eiiirlish type, excepting that the 
pits are shallow. There are four ^5-ton vessels in two pits, and 
there is a traveler over the vessels for settino; l>ottoms. The 
vessel bottoms are set in dry and rammed from the nose of 
the vessel. The tuyeres are \(\ in number, with 13 holes of 
3-8 of an inch diameter. The ingots are top-cast and sand- 
covered ; they are slowly and carefully poured, but no 
funnel is used, and they measure 12 1-2 inches at the bottom 
and 11 inches at the top, and rarely exceed 1,700 pounds in 
weight. 

" Stickers " are punched out of the moulds by means of 
a hydraulic press. The output for 4 vessels is about 9,000 
tons per month, running 10 1-2 tons per week. Statistics 
of one month shows 46 turns, 195 tons per turn — 8,970 tons 
per month, and this output does not keep the rail mill going 
to full capacity. The Bessemer plant operates smoothly 



(38) 

and a good mixture of iron is kept on hand. It is stated 
that 65,000 tons of ingots have been made without a bad 
heat. 

The ])-. oducts follow in one direction from the pig bank 
to the rail yard, over a space of 600 by 200 feet, and with a 
minimum of handling and diversion. The first line of 
heating furnaces stands 60 feet from the line of the Bes- 
semer pits. From the furnaces the ingots pass in a direct 
line through the blooming, roughing and finishing trains (at 
the same heat), to a central hot straightening plate. There 
are hot and cold beds, and finishing tools on either side. 
Eight small heating furnaces with two doors each are used. 
The furnaces are all single and coal fired ; they are charged 
from a bogie l)y hand, and are drawn by means of a hand 
winch. The ingot is wheeled an average of 80 feet to the 
train. The bloom runs out of the reversing blooming 
train upon a car, which carries it by means of a power 
chain straight ahead 80 feet to the table of the 3-high 
roughing train (4 fixed power rollers). The reversing fin- 
ishing train stands in line with the roughing, just like ordi- 
nary stands of roughing and finishing rolls, but the two 
trains are quite independent, and are driven, of course, by 
independent engines. The bottom finishing roll stands in 
line with* the middle roughing roll. Power carriages are on 
the front side of these trains, by which the piece is trans- 
ferred laterally from the last roughing to the first finishing 
pass. 

The blooming train is an old clutch reversing train rebuilt 
for the purpose. The speed of the rolls is moderate, but 
this allows the piece to enter without chattering under a 
large reduction; a'ld as the piece is short, and the feeding 
is rapid, the seven passes are made in fair time. The car- 
riage, running from the blooming to the roughing tables, is 
driven on a slightly inclined railway, by an endless chain, 



(39) 

movable by means of a clutch attached to the engine which 
drives the roughing feed rolls. The l)oy who runs the feed 
engine of the blooming train works this clutch to bring the 
empty carriage Imck ; the roughing feed boy brings the 
bloom up when he wants it. In normal practice the piece 
does not stop, and is not touched with bar or tongs from the 
last pass of the blooming to the back table of the roughing. 

The roughing train is driven direct by a horizontal con- 
densing engine making 52 revolutions. 

The front fixed table consists of 4 18-inch rollers 3 feet 
apart, driven exactly like the blooming feed roller's, by a re- 
versing engine. The floor plate around these rollers is a 
wrought iron armor plate which is nearly on a level with the 
tops of the rollers. The piece falls out of the upper 
passes upon this heavy structure instead of being let down 
by a moving table. The rear table must be a lifting tal)le. 
It is a flat wrought iron plate 24 feet long by 7 feet 1 inch 
wide, resting on a frame of 2 2-inch channel bars, and 
otherwise stiffened. The table is hinged in the rear on a 
link, so that it can move forward and back ; its inner end is 
raised by a hydraulic piston, acting through an underneath 
rock-shaft which also carries a counter weight. The inner 
end of the table is connected to the housings by short links 
in such a way, that as the table rises it is moved 16 inches 
towards the rolls with increasing rapidity, thus throwing the 
piece into the grooves. There are short rollers fixed in and 
projecting just above the top of the table, and space to 
suit the increasing length of the piece. The workmen stand 
on the table and the lifting handle is attached to it. The 
piece drops out of the last top roughing pass upon the seat, 
and is pushed back up an incline, oft' the end of which it 
falls in front of the first finishing pass. The tal)le is 16 
feet long, and consists of 4 rollers in a frame, which is 
moved by a hydraulic cylinder like the pusher of the Fritz 



(4U ) 

blooming train. The table has to be low to run under the 
" spools " which carry the piece to the finishing train. 

The finishinix train is a stand of 2 hioh reversing 24-inch 
rolls, 4 feet 9 inches long. The remarks on the constructive 
features of the roughing train apply e(]ually to this train. 
The train is coupled direct to the engine which runs at 100 
revolutions maximum ; and a carrying roller on either side 
is driven by a belt from the roll necks. The tables consist 
of a railway on either side, upon which are 8 traveling 
rollers or spools 8 feet apart, which roll back and forth (> 
feet between stops, as the rail comes upon them. The 
tracks consist of dt)uble headed rails lying on their sides ; 
the inclination is that of equilibrium ; the rollers throw the 
piece well out and a slight pressure will start it in. The 
spools on the front side are 5 1-2 feet long ; on the l)ack side 
they are but 4 feet, so as not to receive the finished rail ; 
this drops on the driven floor rollers which carry it to 
the saw. 

The ingots are charged and drawn at what we should call 
a high heat, but not too high for good steel, having plenty 
of manganese. 

There are 7 grooves in the blooming rolls, though the first 
is not used. The screws are not worked. The piece goes 
twice through the second groove, being quarter turned on 
the back side, and once through each of the 5 other grooves, 
being (juarter turned on the front side. It finishes .7 by 8 
inches. The first reduction is 2 inches and the others aver- 
age ] inch. 

The men are one tougsman on each side, who turn the 
piece without the aid of hooks, and a boy who runs both the 
table engine and the clutch, to 1)i'ing the l)loom carriage ])ack. 
The back tougsman easily keeps the piece going, until it 
gets upon the bloom carriage. The roughing table boy then 
works the bloom carriage clutch where the carriage stops. 



(41) 

the bloom rolls off upon the roughing table and straight 
through the train without stopping. 

An inspector l)ehind the train watches and sometimes 
turns over the l^loonis ; badly cracked blooms he pulls off 
the carriage ; these are cold chipped, reheated and swung on 
to the carriage to go to the roughing train. "When blooms 
come slightly cracked from the lilooming train, they are 
sometimes stopped and hot chipped by hand. The rough- 
ing rolls take a 7 by 8-inch piece, and there are (5 passes of 
which the last begins to form the stem. There are two 
passes on the flat of the flange. The piece is quarter turned 
once on the back side and twice on the front side. There is 
a number of spare grooves arranged to rough evei'v pattern 
of rail made, so that these rolls are not changed until they 
are too much worn for use. The 26-inch rolls at i)2 revolu- 
tions (after much experimenting), throw the piece just far 
enough out on the rear table so that the inward movement 
of the ta])le throws it again into the rolls. Of course the 
jjiece sometimes misses entering, and has to be adjnsted by 
bar and tongs. The men at the roughing train are, one l)ar- 
man and one tongsman in front, one barman and one tongs- 
man behind, and the table l)oy. There are no hooks ; the 
turning is skillfully done by the front tongsman, while the 
piece is falling ; the turning in the rear at the last pass is 
aided by the barman, who does little else except work the 
table lever. After the piece has passed the last time from 
front to rear of the roughers, the transfer tal)le is moved in 
front of them : it receives the piece and drops it on the spools 
in front of the first finishing pass. There are 5 finishing 
passes all on edge, the piece being turned over in front and 
rear after each pass. This is because the grooves are all in the 
bottom roll. Double collars allowing the grooves to be alter- 
nately in the top and bottom roll, so as to keep down the fin, 
would of course prevent the necessity of turning over the piece. 



(42) 

There are a tongsman and hooker in front, and a tongsman 
and hooker behind. The piece ahnost feeds itself ; and is 
not lifted ; turning brings it right to enter the next groove. 
Rails of 56 to 70 pounds receive 18 passes from an ingot 
aveiaging 11 3-4 inches in thickness. 

The persons employed at the three trains are : 

MEN. BOT8. 

Blooming 2 1 

Inspecting 1 

Rougliing 4 1 

Finishing 4 

Foreman .... 1 

Total 12 2 

This is superior to our ])est practice which requires at 
least 4 persons at the blooming train, 10 at the rail train, 
and never less than 1() men to handle and reheat the' blooms 
between the blooming and rail trains ; also a foreman and 
spell hands, say 36 men. 

The output has l)een : Flange rail, 58 pounds per yard, 
rolled in 3 lengths of 21 feet each , output averaged 2,064 
tons per Aveek of 11 turns, or 345 bars 63 feet long (1,035 
rails), weighing 187 1330-2240 tons per turn; bull head 
rails, 70 pounds per yard, rolled in two 24 feet lengths 
2,761 tons per week of 11 turns, or 251 tons per turn. The 
waste and ends are stated to be 6^ per cent on the ingot. 
The number of second quality rails is said to be under 1 per 
cent. The analysis of l)orings from three rail ends, taken 
out of the pile at random, are as follows : 

No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. 

Carbon 0.35 0.34 0.34 

Phosphorous 0.059 0.053 0.044 

Manganese 1.01 1.02 0.97 

It is stated that Wilson, Cammell & Co. contracted for 
all (he labor to make a ton of rails, from the pig iron piled 
in the yard to the rails loaded on the cars, at about $2.00, 



( 43 ) 

The saw is 70 feet from the rolls. The rail is carried to 
it on large driven rollers, which project just above the floor. 
The same piece is carried to the straightening plate by simi- 
lar rollers. The sets of rollers are driven independently by 
reversing clutches, actuated hy a small engine. Great stead- 
iness of running is promoted : first, hy placing the saw in 
the middle of an arbor, having pulleys on each end ; second, 
by sliding the saw frame in and out in horizontal guides, 
liaving great mass and heavy bearing ; third, by traversing 
the saw frame from a high speed shaft by means of a worm. 
If a single saw will cut a bar into 5 pieces (3 rails and 2 
ends) at the rate of 2,000 tons a week, the necessity of 2 
saws to cut a bar into 3 pieces, in order to keep out of the 
way of the train, in our mills is not obvious ; more than 
this, there seems to be a positive advantage in the single 
saw for double or treble lengths. The last of three rails 
will inequitably be sawn colder than the first, and if its hot 
length is determined by the distance apart of the two fixed 
saws, its cold length will be greater than that of the first. 
The length to l^e cut off is regulated by a mechanical stop, 
operated at will, by a workman. The rails are not lifted 
from the time they leave the saws until they reach the ship- 
ping cars ; the finishing machines stand successivel}^ lower ; 
in fact, the whole plant stands on a long slope, so that stock 
is brought to the cupola charging floors and product is 
removed, l)y means of not very steep sidings, from the main 
line of the Midland Railwav. There are 4 double straio;ht- 
ening presses, 4 drills, and 2 facing machines. There are 8 
straiirhteners workino- davs, and 3 workino; nights ; thev set 
10 shillings (|2.44) per day ; also, the same number of help- 
ers, who get 4s. 6d. ($1.10) per day. The 4 drills bore and 
slot 700 rails per turn. 

The rail train engine is considered a good type, as far as 
durabilitv and smooth workinu: is concerned. It is wasteful 



(44) 

of steam, as all non-compound reversing engines must be, 
because they can not get expansion by a short cut off. The 
frame of each engine consists of 2 deep (3^ feet), straight, 
hollow pieces, extending nearly as far as below the center 
line, and connected at the cylinder by a hollow and deep 
ring (the whole cast together), against which the cylinder is 
bolted. The frames of the two engines are clamped by 
heavy lugs and rings as strongly as if cast together. The 
rear end of the cylinder slides as it expands and contracts 
on a bed plate. The journal boxes part nearly at a right 
angle with the center line, so as to properly take the thrust. 
A matter of interest connected with this plant is the recent 
report of the directors of Charles Cammell & Co., Limited, 
Sheffield. That in order to save the heavy cost, $300,000 
to $350,000 a year of railway carriage of materials inward, 
and of finished manufactures outward, they have resolved 
to acquire the rail mills of Wilson, Cammell & Co., of 
Dronfield, and the works of the Derwent Iron Company at 
Workington. They will remove their own rail mills and 
those of the Dronlield firm to Workington, having arrived 
at the conclusion that in order to make the rail business 
profital)le, three conditions must be fulfilled : 

1. The rail mills must be combined with blast furnaces. 

2. These combined Avorks must be situated on close prox- 
imity to the sea; and, 

3. The blast furnaces must be situated where hematite is 
found, with ready and cheap access thereto. 

These conditions will all be embodied at Workington. To 
carry out the change, $1,750,000 additional capital is pro- 
posed to be raised by shares and debentures. 

One railway company alone will lose carriage payments 
worth $600,000 a year. 

The proposal has more than a local significance, inasmuch 
as English manufactui"ers on the coast are in a strong posi- 



(45) 

tion for reaching the United Stiites market, promptly and 
cheaply . 

The Barrow Hematite Iron and Steel Works. 

These works have sixteen blastfurnaces, fourteen of which 
are built in a row, while the remaining two are half a mile dis- 
tant. The weekly production of pig iron averages about 6,000 
tons, but as it is always calculated that three or four furna- 
ces are out for alteration or repairs, this does not represent 
the full productive resources of the works. The furnaces 
were originally (in 1859) 45 feet high, but they were recon- 
structed to their present height of 62 feet between 1870 and 
1872. The average consumption of fuel is one ton of coke 
per ton of pig iron produced. The red hematite resmelted, 
is chiefly o])tiiined from the Company's own mines in bhe 
neighborhood, at Park and at Stank. The former mine, 
which has been worked for over a quarter of a century, has 
proved to be the finest deposit in the district. The latter is 
the deepest of all tJie Furness Mines. The Furness ores 
average about 56 per cent of metalic iron, and it is valued 
for its metallic richness, as well as for its freedom from phos- 
phorus and sulphur, of which ingredients it contains only frac- 
tional quantities. In smelting the Furness hematite ore, about 
7 cwt^. of limestone is used to the ton of iron made. The 
blast is heated to a temperature ranging between 900 degrees 
to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The furnaces are e*ich filled 
with six tuyeres. The boshes of the larger furnaces are 21 
feet, and of the smaller ones 17 1-2 feet. 

The blast is heated partly by Cowpcr's and partly by Gjer's 
stoves. There are three beam and sixteen grasshopper l)last 
engines. The three beam engines are compound, with l)low- 
ing cylinders, two of 100 inches, and one of 110 inches in 
diameter, and a stroke of 9 feet. With the exception of the 
buildina* that contains the latter engines all the eng-ine houses 



are built iDarallcl to, and at the hack of, the furnaces. The 
hoists are inclined planes, worked by special engines. For 
the fourteen furnaces there are sixteen inclines, each with a 
separate pair of engines, the cylinders of which are sixteen 
inches in diameter and the stroke 2 1-2 feet. The furnaces 
are fitted with the bell and hopper apparatus, in order to 
utilize the waste gasses, which are sufficient to heat all the 
boilers and hot-air stoves without any other fuel. 

The Steel works are parallel to, and about 200 yards dis- 
sant from the Iron Avorks, on the pig-bed side. The Fur- 
ness Railway runs between the two departments, and the 
rest of the intervening space is occupied by sidings, filling 
sheds, and a wrought iron bridge spans the whole of the 
railway and connects the different departments-. The Iron 
works are situated on the shores of the Walney Channel, 
into which the slag is tipped. The quantity of the latter is 
so enormous, that a considerable area of land is annually 
rechiimed, so much so, that several of the furnaces and many 
of the lines of railway are built on reclaimed land. 

In the space between the iron and steel works a block of 
coke ovens has been built on the Coppee system, now so 
much adopted on the continent. The group consists of thirty 
ovens, 30 feet long by 18 inches wide. The steel works are con- 
tained in three parallel erections, connected together, from 85 
to 105 feet in width, and 735 to 875 feet long. Over 3,000 
tons of steel, by the Bessemer process, are made per week. 
There were formerly 18 converters, but as this part of the 
works has undergone reconstruction, the number has been 
reduced to eleven. The accessory machinery embraces two 
coirsino; mills, three rail mills and one merchant mill. Rails 
constitute the chief branch of manufacture, but considerable 
quantities of tyres, fish-plates, axles and forgings are also 
made. The converters are placed in the North end of the 
buildings. The l)lowino- enirines are a short distance off, in a 



(47) 

separate building. The horizontal engines have 4(S-inch diam- 
eter blowing cylinders, 36-incli diameter steam cylinders and 
5 feet stroke. Side by side with these is the usual arrange- 
ment of pumps for working the hydraulic cranes. An ad- 
joining house contains a pair of vertical condensing blowing 
engines with 54-inches diameter l)lowing cylinders, 40-inch 
diameter steam cylinders and 5 feet stroke. The pressure 
of the l)last in the converters is from 21 to 25 pounds per 
square inch, and the average time of blowing is 20 minutes. 
Formerly the pig-iron was remelted ; now, the molten iron 
is brought direct from the furnaces in ladles on a specially 
arranged wagon, and though the molten metal has to travel 
nearly two miles to get round by a junction, no difficulty is 
experienced from any appreciable lowering of its tempera- 
ture. The locomotive brings four charges at once, two in 
each ladle, and l)y means of raised sidings enters Nos. 1 and 
2 sheds on a level with the converter's toi)s. The charge is 
conveyed into the converters by means of cast iron runners. 
Occasionally a small (luantity of Swedish pig-iron is added to 
the charge. After the l)low is concluded, the usual amount 
of Spiegeleisen is poured in. There are 4 cupolas for melt- 
ing the Spiegeleisen. Th(> converters vary somewhat in size 
but are mostly 16 feet in height, fS 1-2 feet inside diameter, 
and have a nominal capacity of 10 tons. Each pair is placed 
in respect to one another at such an angle that if necessary 
both can pour their contents into the same ladle. The ram 
to which the ladle ib" attached is in the centre of the })its. It 
revolves on its own axis and rises by hydraulic pressure. 
When the ladle is tilled, the ram is raised and turned around, 
and the steel runs from the bottom of the ladle, either into 
separate ingot moulds, or by preference, into a hollow stan- 
dard which resembles on a large scale, the runner of a cast- 
ing. Hydrostatic j^ressure causes the molten metal to tlow 
through horizontal channels made of perforated and specially 



(48 ) 

arranged firebricks, and to rise through the bottorji into four, 
six or eight moulds arranged in two rows. By this means, 
with one opening of the valve of the ladle most, if not all, 
of the ingots from that particular blow are cast. In the 
Bessemer department, hydraulic power is solely used for 
working the cranes, turning the converters, etc. This power 
is derived from three steam engines, each having 18 1-4 
inch diameter cylinders 3 feet stroke, driving five hydraulic 
rams varying from 3 to 5 inches in diameter. 

The steel ingots are taken from the Bessemer department 
to the Siemen's reheating furnaces. The latter are sup- 
plied with gas from 72 producers. The method of charging 
the producers is mechanical. About two tons of coal slack 
per day is required for each generator. 

From the main gas tubes branch tubes lead to the 46 fur- 
naces employed in reheathig the ingots and blooms. The 
coofoiiiCT mills are desio;ned to be automatic and to require a 
minimum of manual labor. The mills are connected to a 
pair of beam engines and are driven by a train of wheels 
arranged for reversing, but detached from each other. The 
reversmg gear consists of a hydraulic cylinder, coupled to a 
lever and an ordinary clutch. The rolls in one mill are 30 
mches and m the other 36 inches in diameter. The blooms 
on leaving the cogging mills, pass by self acting rollers to a 
hammer to be cut mto two or three pieces as required. The 
mill department contanis three rail mills, a merchant mill, 
and a tire mill, and 2 of the rail mills are three high and 
driven by condensing beam engines with cylinders 42 inches 
diameter, and 6 feet stroke. The rail mills are speeded 1 
to 2 1-4, making (51 revolutions per minute. The rail mill 
trains are 26 inches diameter rolls, consisting of three rough- 
ing rolls, with 7 grooves. These grooves are not all used at 
the same time, five or six grooves in each set of rolls being 
generally found suflicient. Rail up to 100 feet in length 



(4i» ) 

and of very difficult sections are rolled in these mills. 
Attached to the roughing rolls in each mill is a hydraulic 
lift for the purpose of raising the bloom, after passing 
through the grooves in the bottom rolls to those in the top 
rolls. The third rail mill is a very poAverful reversing mill 
consisting of a single set of rolls, driven by a pair of hori- 
zontal engines, which make 100 revolutions per minute, the 
cylinder being 42 inches diameter, with 4 feet stroke. Self 
acting gear carry the rails to the saw in each department, 
and from the saw to the ' straightening presses, punching 
presses, drilling and planing machines in the usual manner. 
In and about the works there are many lines of railways and 
numerous buildings. The engines in the various parts of 
the works, which aggregate 0,000 horse-power, require 150 
Td oilers. . ^ 

IVest Cumber/and Iron and Steel Company. 

The Works of the West Cumberland Iron and Steel Com- 
pany are situated on the coast of Cumberland, close to the 
town of Workington. 

They consist of 6 blast furnaces, 70 feet high, which are 
served by 4 sets of firebrick, and 1 set of cast iron stoves. 
There are two pairs of blowing engines, and a single com- 
pound beam engine. The larger pairs are condensing beam 
engines, having 44-inch diameter steam, and 96-inch diameter 
blowing cylinders with 8 feet stroke, running about 20 strokes 
per minute. The other engines are of the vertical Cleve- 
land type, with steam above the blast cylinders. Most of 
the iron is taken in a molten state direct to the steel works, 
a large tunnel having been driven parallel and close up to 
the furnace, so that the iron can be tapped at once into the 
ladles or run down the pig-bed, if necessary. 

At these works Mr. Snelus applied the system in use there, 
for conveying the molten pig iron from the blast furnace to 



( 50 ) 

the converters. In devising this plan he started with the 
conviction that it was desirable : 1st. To construct a ladle 
and carriage that could be moved about with safety and 
celerity without being an undue weight ; that the ladle should 
be placed in the most secure position upon its carriage ; that 
it should be easily tipped for pouring out the metal, lifted 
out with facility when it required to be changed ; and that 
the man in charge of the ladle should be in a good position 
for turning it over, not only to see well what he was doing,, 
but to be out of danger from splashes of metal. 2d. That 
all turntables and lifts should be avoided. 3d. That in 
order to produce the utmost economy the ladle should be 
brought as near as possible to the l)last furnace so as not to 
cool the metal or have more scraj) than necessary, and that 
the metal should be poured directly from the ladle into the 
converters, to avoid the cost and waste of runner making. 
The carriage and ladle, lined ready for use, weighs under 10 
tons. The converters are arraniied according^ to the usual 
English plan, facing each other, and a staging has been 
thrown .-over the pit between the two converters. The dis- 
tance between the blast furnace and converter is about 1050 
feet, and on a comparatively direct line from one point to 
the other. In order to bring the ladle as close as possible 
to the furnaces, a cutting was made through the pig-beds in 
front of the tap holes, and in order that the pig-beds might 
not be curtailed, the cutting is made sufficiently deep to be 
covered for casting purposes. In practice the iron is tapped 
from the furnace into the ladle, about 3 tons, 10 cwt. from 
each furnace. This is done to ensure as far as possible a 
uniform charge. Five minutes often suffices to tap both 
furnaces and to get the charge of metal, and in less than 5 
minutes it can be weighed, taken to the converters, and 
poured into the vessel. 

The arrangements are such as to produce the minimum 



(51) 

amount of scrap and scull, and the yield, in consequence, is 
increased . 

One ladle lasts from one to two hundred casts before the 
scull needs to be taken out, and even then, it is only the 
loose coatino^ and not the lirick linino; of the ladle, that wants 
renewing. 

The practical results obtained in a fortnight's time are 
stated by Mr. Snelus to have been : — 

Total metal used 1033 Tons. 

Ingots made 887 Tons. 

Ladle Scull Iron 14 .-.^^q Tons. 

Iron Scrap, cleansing of ladle 1 -2^>40 "l^ns. 

Steel Scraps of all kinds 14 ^^^s^g- Tons. 

Yield of Ingots 85 8-10 per cent. 

Waste 14 2-10 per cent. 

Iron Scull Scrap, say 1 1-2 per cent. 

Steel Scrap of all kinds 1 1-2 per cent. 

Leaving absolute waste, about 11 percent. 

A careful system of analyzing the iron from each furnace 
daily, and mixing it, so that the silicon is kept very regular, 
is followed, and the steel is consequently very uniform in 
quality. The steel works consist of two Bessemer pits with 
a pair of 7 1-2 ton vessels in each, blown by a pair of hori- 
zontal engines. The steam cylinders are 40 inches diameter, 
and the blowing cylinders 54 inches diameter, stroke 5 feet. 
An independent condenser has been added to the engines. 
The pressure of the blast is 25 pounds to the square inch. 
The hydraulic power is obtained from a dou])le-acting pump 
with 8 inch ram and 8 feet stroke. It runs only G or 7 
strokes per minute to perform all the work. There is no 
fly-wheel. The power is regulated by an accumulator, the 
ram being 30 inches in diameter and having a stroke of 24 
feet. The working pressure is about 500 pounds per s(iuare 



( 52 ) 

inch. The product from the converters amounting to nearly 
80,000 tons of ingots in the year, is worked up into rails, 
billets and forgings. The ingots are all made heavy enough 
for 4 or 6 rails, and are taken hot to the rail mill. After a 
slight soaking in Siemen's heating furnaces, they are cogged 
in a cogging mill with 34 inch rolls, driven by a pair of 
reversina: enirines. Two men do all the work at the rolls, 
as the ingot is moved in and out by machinery. From the 
co2:ging rolls, after being sawn in two, the bloom is taken to 
the reheating furnaces, and is then rolled off into a double 
rail by a pair of reversing engines. These are compound 
and condensing. They have a 3 feet 3 inch stroke and run 
at a high rate of speed, often up to 90 strokes per minute, 
during the last passes of the rail. These engines were orig- 
inally used in Her Majesty's frigate the Liverpool. When 
this vessel was being broken up the company bought the 
engines, and they were compounded by adding high pressure 
cylinders. At the same time the bed plate, connecting rods, 
etc., were lengthened so as to get a better driving angle. In 
addition to the rail mill referred to, there are also a 23-inch 
pull-over mill, for light sections and a couple of 24-inch 
plate mills driven by a pair of engines, but reversed by clutch 
arrangements. The plate mills have made 400 tons of iron 
plates per week, but are now exclusively engaged on steel 
plates. 

At the iron and steel works there are 48 steam boilers, 24 
of these being of the double flued Lancashire type w^th steel 
flues, five being entirely of steel. The latter have been in 
use some time and have given entire satisfaction. Good 
water is obtained from a pumping establishment about a mile 
up the river Derwent, where a couple of horizontal pumping 
engines are located, each capable of pumping about 2,000 
gallons per minute into the reservoir, 120 feet above the 
river. Altogether the works use about 3,000 gallons of 



( 53 ; 

water per minute for boilers, condensers and tuyeres, but 
half of this is conveyed into an extensive series of cooling 
channels, about 1 1-8 mile long, and is used over again. 
There are 52 engines on the works, that work up to about 
7,000 indicated horse power. 

The iron ore employed at West Cumberland is obtained 
from the Cleator Moor mines ; the coal and coke from the 
companies' collieries about three miles from the works ; and 
the limestone flux from the quarries belonging to the firm 
at Brigham, about eight miles up the Derwent. 

The Rhymney Steel Works. 
The Rhymney Steel Works are among the latest, as the 
Barrow were among the earliest works of the kind erected 
in the United Kingdom. The plant having been erected for 
the purpose of converting old iron works and adapting them 
to the manufacture of steel, the arrangement was somewhat 
controlled by the situation of the blast furnaces, it was 
intended to use for the process, and also by the extent of 
ground available. It was erected for the purpose of making 
steel by the direct process — that is, by taking the molten 
iron direct from the blast furnaces and submitting it to the 
process of conversion on the Bessemer system, instead of 
running it into pigs and then remelting them in an air fur- 
nace or cupola, the favorite method, until very recently. 
More uniform results being obtained by mixing the produce 
of two or more blast furnaces, this plan is followed here 
with the means of taking a further supply of iron, when 
required, from the cupolas (two in number) which are situ- 
ated alongside the subway leading from the furnaces to the 
steel works ; they are used for remelting the iron made and 
run into pigs on Sunday, and at such other times as the steel 
works may not be in operation, care being taken to use such 
iron in the cupolas as will correct any irregularity in the iron 



(54) 

taken from the blast furnaces, and thus secure the desired 
regularity in quality. 

The iron is run from the furnace into a ladle standing on 
a railway in the subway, and is drawn l)y a small locomotive 
engine up a gradient of 1 in 50. The carriage and ladle now 
stand on the floor of the converter house, and as they are 
still below the level of the converters, the ladle full of metal 
is lifted from the carriage by a twelve ton hydraulic crane 
and poured direct into the converter, which is then turned 
up and the blow commences ; this lasts from 15 to 20 min- 
utes, with a blast pressure of 25 pounds upon the square 
inch. After the ])\o\v the same crane conveys the si)iegelei- 
sen direct from the cupola to the converter. An empty 
casting ladle suspended on the other side of the crane is 
now swung round to receive the steel and transfers it to the 
center casting crane, which is then turned towards the pit, 
leaving the charging crane and converters clear from obser- 
vation and at liberty for the next blow, which can commence 
at once while the casting is l)eing proceeded with. 

Within the radius of No. 2 ingot crane is placed a monkey 
for knocking out any ingot which may stick fast in the 
moulding ; the tup of this monkey is raised by a chain led 
from a hydraulic crane near the spiegel cupolas, which crane 
also lifts the spiegeleisen and coke. The "stickers" are 
thus dealt with without delay, preventing the unsightly 
accumulation of '•stickers," which must take place where 
appliances for knocking them out are not easily available. 

The converters, 7 tons capacity each, are side by side, 
the "American Plan." The usual practice in Great Britain 
has them vi^ a vis, thus subjecting workmen, when repairing, 
to the annoyance of sparks from the other vessel. 

The Company, in their report for the year ending March, 
1882, show a jn-olit of £20,000, but the directors have not 
recommended any dividend for the second half of the year. 



CHAPTER IV. 



METHODS. 

FOREIGN WORKS CONTINUED THE ESTON STEEL WORKS, 

ENGLAND THE STEEL COMPANY OF SCOTLAND, 

LI3IITED T. COCKERILL ET CIE STEEL 

WORKS, BELGIUM. 



The Eston Steel Works. 

In 1877 Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughuii & Co. opened at Eston, 
in Cleveland, one of the most complete and adniiniblv ar- 
ranged steel makiiio- estal)lishnients in the world. Tlie site 
of these works extending over 100 acres of land, adjoins the 
Darlington Section of the Northeastern TIailway, and abuts 
upon the private jetty of the tirni, whence the ores are de- 
livered and the finished article shipped without any cost for 
freightage or other dues. The ore is carried along an over- 
head railway and is emptied into huge bunkers immediately 
behind the furnaces. The bunker.s are divided for the se[)- 
arate storage of limestone,' ironstone and coke, and are built 
of strong timber, with equally strong iron supports. They 
are fitted underneath with valves, Avhich enables the raw 
material to be emptied into the barrows, without any mamial 
labor other than that of simply opening and shutting the 
valves, which are placed underneath the floor of the bunkers 
at the height of about 5 1-2 feet fi'om the ground. After 
being filled these l)arrows are wheeled to the hoists, which 
are worked by water l)alances with a break wheel at the top. 



( o6 ) 

The water is pumped by ordinary pumping engines into a 
tank placed at the top of the hoists. Three harrows are car- 
ried up at a time, the load l)eing about 1,700 pounds. The 
water actuating the hoist is obtained from the Eston mines 
belonging to the tirm and it runs in an open stream down to 
the steel works, distant 2 1-2 miles. 

There are nineteen blast furnaces immediately surrounding 
the steel works, and hot air stoves each having 2,000 square 
feet of heating surface and giving a temperature of 1,100 
degrees to the blast are attached to the furnaces. A 20-ton 
machine is provided for the purpose of weighing the iron as 
it comes from the blast furnaces, and the laboratory is placed 
close by the'machine, so that the molten metal can be taken 
from the ladles and sampled and analyzed without loss of 
time. It is not the custom to take samples of each cast, as 
it is believed that the iron will be kept regular otherwise. 

The converting house is divided into two departments, the 
basic and the hematite, each containing four converters in a 
row, the basic converters being nominally ten tons capacity 
each, and the hematite five tons. The acid converters are to 
be changed to basic, and this firm will have 8 converters 
working on the basic process. The vessels are placed at 
greater distances apart than is common in our American Steel 
plants, Avith the advantages of greater accessibility and the 
greater room on the platform for charging and other neces- 
sary operations. There is one ladle crane to each pair of 
converters, not top-supported, as in our home works, but 
balanced by a counter weight. It has the three motions of 
lifting, moving also around a circle, and carrying the ladle 
out or in, frohi or toward the centre, all controllable by 
hydraulic machinery. Its lift is so high that the ladle can 
be lifted above the ingot molds when these are standing on 
the ground level, thus enabling the deep pit to be dispensed 
with, and greatly facilitating the placing of the ingot molds. 



(57) 

The pig metal used in these converters (both basic and 
hematite) is all tapped directly from the blastfurnaces, and 
is brought in ladles to the steel works, hoisted by a hydrau- 
lic lift to the railway track on the platform behind the con- 
verters, and it is then run on this track to the vessel which 
is ready for it, and tapped through a short runner directly 
into the vessel, into which the basic additions and a few crop 
ends or other pieces of scrap have already been placed. 

The blow lasts about twenty minutes ; the converter is 
then turned back toward the platform, and a sample taken 
out and tested by hammering out, cooling, and breaking, to 
determine whether the purification has been complete. When 
this is done, either with or without a few seconds of extra 
blowing, the steel is poured into the crane ladle where it is 
mixed with the spiegel which has been tapped into two small 
ladles from one of four cujjolas standing together on the 
platform . 

The production does not seem very large in comparison 
with that of our best works, (only 2,500 tons per week for 
four converters) but no attempt is made to run each con- 
verter to its utmost capacity the whole time, as in America. 
Two of the four converters are always idle, but in readiness 
to be used as soon as the other two are stopjDed for rei^airs. 
The working force of men is only large enough to keep two 
converters at work, and the men at twelve hours per day 
mstead of eight, as in some of the American works. 

Throughout the works care is taken to avoid working be- 
low the floor line. This arrangement represents a consider- 
able economy with the customary Bessemer process of casting 
the mgots in pits, seeing that the expense and loss of time 
incurred in lifting the ingots out of the pits is avoided. 

Here the technical and commercial success of the basic 
process is unquestionable. The mechanical difficulties have 
been successfully surmounted. The works have been in sue- 



( '^« ) 

cessful operation on this process for nearly two years and 
the basic converting department gives less anxiety and 
trouble than any other department in the works, and proves 
that the process is inevery sense past the experimental stage. 
After coming from the converters the ingots of steel are 
heated in Siemen's regenerative furnaces, of which tjiere are a 
large numl)cr, covering about 2 acres, indicating that the work 
will not be delayed from want of sufficient heating capacity. 
There are 2 large 2-high blooming mills for blooming the 
ingots from 15 inches square down to 7 inches square. The 
ingots are handled by hydraulic power, and are rolled with- 
out any other manual aid than that supplied by the engine- 
man \Yho works the cranes and I'ams. These blooming mills 
have 40-inch diameter rolls, driven by very large double 
reversing engines, which are geared down 3 to 1. Each 
engine has a set of rolls on each side to prevent any stop- 
page by breakage or any other reason ])y which one set of 
rolls may become incapacitated. 

The ingots, after blooming, are generally not sheared into 
rail lengths, but are at once taken to the 2-higli reversing 
rail mill, which rolls o or more lengths of rail at once, which 
are then sawed to lengths by the hot saws. 

The rail mill is furnished with 26-inch rolls driven by 
large reversing compound engines. In reference to the 
quality of the steel made at Eston, a table of 51 consecutive 
blows or heats, shows that the variation in carbon by color 
tests of this whole lot was only between .30 and .40, and in 
phosphorus only between .04 and .08. 

A ball of 1,120 pounds, falling 15 feet on the finished rail, 
bearings 3 feet 10 inches apart, produces deflections, varying 
only from 1 7-8 to 3 1-8 inches in a constant length of 24 
feet. If this regularity of product obtains through 51 con- 
secutive heats, there can be no doubt it can ]>e duplicated 
whenever desired, as the phosphorus in the finished product is 



( 59 ) 

entirely within control of the operator. This elimination of 
phosphorus to the last traces depends upon the afterblow 
and the amount of ir(>n which is wasted in order to make 
sure of such elimination. When steel rail is wanted to con- 
tain not nnn-e than .10 P., the afterblow is not carried to 
such an extent as when boiler plate is w\anted, with below 
.05 P., and in rail steel, therefore, a variation in P. of 
from .02 to .08 or .10 is quite allowable. Upon this fact 
the practical and uniform elimination of phosphorus down 
to below .05 depends the future of the manufacture of the 
finer steels in the United States. Especially crucible steels, 
and to Bessemer and oi)en hearth steels for lioiler plates, 
rivets, stay*l)olts, and line steels for stamping, tin plates, 
etc. In crucible steel manufacture at })resent the raw 
material imported is Swedish wrought iron bars, which are 
exceedingly costh^ Their chemical peculiarity, upon wiiich 
their whole market value depends, is lovj phosphorus and 
low silicon. 

A basi(^ Bessemer works in the United States making steel 
for boik-r plates, or such like pur})ose, containing kxowx 
QUANTITIES of pliosphorus P. .01, P. .02, P. .08, etc., and 
all necessarily very low in silicon, the sciiap of these works 
thus graded, is the very best material in the world for 
crucible steel, and the best material for the open hearth pro- 
cess to manufacture into spring and other high-carbon, low- 
phosphorus, and low-siUcon steels. So in regai-d to open 
hearth steel l)oilcr plates and other very soft steels. The 
materials now used are the best extra low phosphorus Bes- 
semer pigs largely imported from England and Sweden for 
the puqiose. Republic or Spanish ores, Chateaugay or other 
Champlain blooms, or pig iron dei)hos])horized by some 
expensive process, such as Kru})p's or BclTs washing pro- 
cess or bv ordinary puddling. However obtained, these raw 



( <50 ) 

materials are all expensive. If the open hearth process for 
the manufacture of soft steel is to live and prosper in com- 
petition with the basic Bessemer process, its raw materials 
must be cheapened, and no way is so likely to cheapen it as 
the introduction of the basic process, and with the basic 
steel scrap. 

As an illustration of profits at Eston, the last annual 
report of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. may be quoted from. 
The report says : 

"Your directors have pleasure in submitting herewith the 
"company's balance sheet and auditor's report for the year 
"ending December 31, 1<S81. 

" Having regard to the low prices ruling for pig iron dur- 
" ing the second and third quarters, and the unsatisfactory 
"condition of the coal trade over the whole of the past 
"year, the du-ectors feel assured that the results obtained 
"will be considered satisfactory to the share holders. The 
"amount of profit available for distriljution is £305,- 
" 80() 12s 5d.''' This is nearly $1,500,000, but this amount 
"available for distribution" does not represent all the 
profits of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. in 1881. 

The report adds : " The plant and machinery have been 
"kept in an efiicient state, and several important repairs and 
"improvements have been made and charged to revenue 
"account." This means that the value and effectiveness of 
their works were increased last year, as a basis for future 
profits, and that this was done in addition to setting aside 
$1,500,000 for distribution. 

For the six months ending June 30, 1882, the directors 
decided on August 25, last, to pay an interim dividend at 
the rate of 7 1-2 per cent per annum. 

The capital of this company, which is already £3,507,- 
360, is about to be increased to £3,857,360, to enable the 



(61) 

directors to meet their greatly extending business, and to 
allow them to proceed with the development of the salt 
deposits which underlie a considerable extent of their prop- 
erty in Cleveland. They propose issuing the new capital of 
£350,000 to the extent of £250,000 in ordinary shares of 
£20 each, and the remaining £100,000 in 5 per cent prefer- 
ence shares of the value of £20 each. 

The measure of the profits which iron and steel manufac- 
turers should in equity receive must, of course, vary accord- 
ing to circumstances, but concerning the general proposition 
that large profits are necessary, it may be asked, how else 
can large manufacturing enterprises be built up and employ- 
ment be given to large numbers of people ? Large profits 
are needed to pay for extensions to enterprises originally 
small, and to provide improvements in methods of manufac- 
ture which the progressive spirit of the age, and the fierce- 
ness of competition are constantly suggesting. In no other 
way could capital ever have been accumulated to equip and 
sustain the great manufacturing enterprises of the world. 
The large capital upon which millions of wheels and spin- 
dles and all other productive machinery now rests mainly, 
represents profits. Bolckow, Vaughan cS; Co. was founded 
in 1841, with a small capital, one of the partners contribut- 
ing absolutely nothing but his skill and experience as an 
iron worker, and for many years its operations were con- 
ducted on a small scale. In 1850, it entered upon a more 
prosperous career, and its present extensive works have been 
created chiefiy with the profits of the last thirty years. The 
great steel works of Alfred Kruj)p, at Essen, in Germany, 
the largest in the world, were founded in 1810, by Friedrich 
Krupp, the father of the present proprietor, and as late as 
1848, they employed only 74 workmen. At the present 
time they employ 17,000 persons. The commercial value 
of these works and their accessories, is greater than that of 



( <32 ) 

the works of Bolckow, Vauahan & Co., and yet this immense- 
value may be said to have 1)een created wholly out of the 
profits derived hy one family, in two generations, from an 
enterprise that was originally very small indeed. 

It has frequently happened in the manufacture of iron 
and steel, that in the course of a very few years it has been 
necessary to almost entirely change the methods of machin- 
ery previously employed, thus entailing great and unexpected 
expense. In the manufacture of pig iron, the introduction 
of hot blast stoves and powerful blowing engines in late 
years has required more money than the original cost of the 
furnaces to which they have l)een attached. In the manu- 
facture of steel, many changes in methods have occurred in 
recent years, each of which has been exceedingly expensive. 
Some of these changes, it is true, have been of radical char- 
acter, as in the introduction of the Bessemer and open hearth 
process, which may be classed as new industries rather than 
as modifications of old processes ; but even these new meth- 
ods of })roducing steel have been modified and improved b}^ 
experience, while the old crucible process has been almost 
completely transformed by the introduction, at great expense, 
of gas furnaces. Years ago, in the United States, a large 
amount of capital was expended in the erection and e(]uip- 
ment of mills for rolling iron rails. Many of these mills 
have since been abandoned or converted at considerable 
expense into mills for rolling iron in other forms, while others 
have been converted at still greater expense into establish- 
ments for the production of rails made by the Bessemer, or 
open-hearth process. 

In the report of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., already men- 
tioned, the necessity for frequent changes of methods and 
machinery, is thus referred to: "The ra[)id progress of 
"invention connected Avith the steel and iron trade, neces- 
" sitates the greatest watchfulness on the part of your 



( <^^3 ) 

'* directors to keep the works and phmt in such a state of 
"cfficieiUT iis will enal)le them to obtain the largest produc- 
" tion and work, with the most economical results," Even in 
establishments in which new methods and modern machinery 
have been introduced, the annual cost of repairs to and 
renewals of such machmerj as is in use, is ordinarily suffi- 
cient to absorb no inconsideral)le part of the profits. Prob- 
al)ly no other business is so destructive to machinery and 
other inanimate aids which it employs, as the manufacture 
of iron and steeL 

The Steel Company of Scotland, Limited. — The 
Open Hearth Plant. 

There were at the works of this company in -bily 1874, 8 
10-ton furnaces, which produced 1 1 1-2 tons each per heat, 
and 8 5-ton furnaces which produced (5 1-2 t(ms per heat, 
and 2 more 10-ton furnaces in tlie same line being erected. 
Since the revival of trade, and especially since the increased 
demand for ship plates, a line of 14 10-ton steel furnaces, 
parallel to the first lino has been built. The 10-ton furnaces 
make 120 tons per week each, maximum in 10.44 heats, 
from cold pig and ore. The r)-ton furnaces make iK) tons 
per week each, maximum in 13.8 heats. 

The percentage (on ingots) of material, other than ore, 
used for four months, May 10, 1879, was: 

PER CENT. 

Pig 79.64 

Scrap 19.70 

Scull 2.81 

Spiegel and ferro manganese 2.23 

1U4.38 

Calling the ore used 50 per cent iron, the total percentage 
(on ingots) of materials is 119 1-4 per cent, and the loss 
16.13 per cent on the materials put in. 



( <34) 

The rail mill has a compound reversing engine, with 2 
29-inch high pressure cylinders and 2 50-incli low pressure 
cylinders and 5 feet stroke. It is joined directly to the rail 
finishmo; rolls. This enojne is ijeared 2 to 1, and connected 
on the other side by a heavy plate train. The boiler pres- 
sure is 110 pounds, the boilers being of locomotive type. 
Steam is cut off at nearly full stroke b}^ the lap of the valve, 
and expands only in the large cylinders. The usual revolu- 
tions are 80, but the engine has been run at 120 revolutions, 
indicating 2,500 horse power. 

The rail train consists of 3 stands of 2-high 26-inch rolls, 
of which the cogging and roughing are di-iven by an old 
34-inch bv 42-inch stroke engine, geared 3 to 1. The finish- 
ing rolls are driven direct by the compound engine above 
described. A 13-inch ingot is rolled at 1 heat in 4 cogging, 
6 roughing and 7 finishing passes, into 1 heavy rail or 2 
light ones. The cogging stand has feed rollers on each side, 
clutch geared to the train and 2 hooks. The rouohino; stand 
has 2 spools and 1 hook on each side. The finishing stand 
has spools on the backside and fixed under-driven rollers on 
an incline in front. 

The men at the train are 14, as follows : 



Cogging front 1 hook 1 tongs 

Cogging back 1 hook 1 tongs 

Roughing front 1 hook 1 tongs 

Roughing back 1 hook 1 tongs 

Finishing front 1 hook 1 tongs 1 bar 

Finishing back 1 hook 1 tongs 1 bar 

Total, 14 men. 

Plate Rollings. — The trains are 2 reversing trains, 
having each 2 stands of 26 inches by 7 feet rolls, and driven 
by 34-inch by 42-inch stroke engines, geared 3 3-4 to 1 1-4, 
steam pressure 50 pounds. 



( <^5 ) 

There is a short table consistmg of uiiderdriven rollers on 
«ach side ; bogies are used to catch the outer end of the 
plate when it gets long. The rolling is pretty rapid ; 5-inch, 
12-cwt. slal)s are rolled to 1-4 and 3-8-inch by 19 roughing 
and 8 finishing passes in 3 minutes. There are 10 men at 
the train, viz. : 2 "bars" in front and 2 behind, 2 bogie 
men, 2 In-oom men, 1 extra hand, and 1 boss. One train 
has rolled 23 tons per turn from 5-inch 10 to 15-cwt. slabs, 
to 1-2 and 5-8 inch plate. The 2 trains have rolled 450 tons 
per week of all sizes and thicknesses down to 1-8-inch. 
There is no reheating ; 1-8-inch plates are rolled from tlijn 
slabs. A scraper is hung on the top roll to remove scale, 
and twigs are thrown on the plate before the last pass, to 
clean it. All plates and sheets are annealed. Some plate 
iuijots are rolled direct, but most of them are hammered to 
a 4 to 6-inch thickness, at a low temperature. They then 
roll smooth at a high temperature. It is stated that the 
])()ck-mark in the ingot shows in the plate when the ingot is 
rolled direct at a high temperature. The Lloyds require- 
ment for plates is 27 to 31 tons tenacity and 20 per cent 
stretch, on a specimen from each plate. The Board of Trade 
and Admiralty require 26 to 30 tons tenacity and 20 per 
cent stretch. The softest plates have carbon, 0.18 and man- 
ganese 0.50. The plate train engines are geared, because 
on short work the engine could not get up to speed, and 
would be wasteful. Directly connecting the engine to the 
train is no doubt better for rolling rails and other long work. 

Excepting I beams, all other required shapes are rolled 
up to 12-inch I deck beams ; these, also L.'s and T.'s, 
are already produced in the train rail. Foundations 
for trains and engines are made of concrete, excepting the 
pockets for the hold down bolts. The trains are set on tim- 
ber bedded in the concrete. 



(66) 

The followino; is the cost erf iiii>()ts for four weeks endmo; 
May 10th, '79 ; one third phite, two thirds rails. 

The cost of pig was excessive, the company having some 
thousands of tons on hand at this price. The same pig at 
the then current price, $12.45, woukl make a difference in 
the cost of ingots of $1.53. $12.45 was the price of the pig 
used. 



Description. 



Pig Iron 

Steel and Iron Scrap 

Scull 

Spiegel 

Ferro Mang 

Ores, various 

Sand and Loam 

Ganister 

Coal and Dross 

Ing. Molds and Bot's 

Stoves 

Sundries 

Steel and Iron Cas ings 

Brick, Fire (lav, &c 

Wrought Iron, Steel & WW 

Use of Machines 

Wages 

Steel Melting 

Pattern and Carpenter 

Fitting and Erecting . , . . . 

Smithy 

Foundry 

Bricklayers 

Yard Labor 

Interest, &c 



Weight. Rate. 



2901.1778 

717.1925 

101.1904 

39.201 () 

42.2198 

1085.1.554 



2709 672 



14.396 
13.908' 
12.81 
22.77 
5(;.95 
4 G2< 



Amount. 



Less: 

TONS. 

Scull 100 

B'd Ingots, 7 



LBS. 

1G24 at 012.81... $290.29 
1568 at 13.90.. 107.10 



Steel ingots made, tons 3642 — lbs. 1435 . . . 



41774.20 

9983.96 

1304.71 

908.61 

2448.20 

4371. 

143.12 

280.14 

2786.87 

1696. 56 

348.99 

110.52 

338.76 

314.52 

52.25 

86.50 



Wt per 
ton. 



Cost per 
ton. 



1784 

441 

63 

24 

26 

667 



5070.94 
55.29 
187.17 
127.89 
121.68 
485.36 
799.46 

2710.82 



1665 



76507.65 
1397.39 



75110.26 



11.44 
2.74 
.36 
.245 
.675 
1.21 
.04 
.08 
.775- 
.475 
.08 
.02 
.10 
.08 
.02 
.03 



1.38 



.49 



.75 

.98 

.36 
.62 



((37) 
The following statement shows the work per ton of ingots : 

STEEL WORKS OF SCOTLAND, MAY, 1879. 

Each open hearth furnace, 1st hand IQis 

Each open hearth furnace, 2d hand 066 

Each open hearth furnace, 3d hand 00'' 

Each open hearth furnace. Pitman 066 

One producer man to each block (1 block per furnace) and 4 ash- 
men to 10 blocks, each 07' 

A. — Yard contract for discharging cars of all material used, in- 
cluding coal, and removing slag, scrap, etc., but not Ingots 

nor producer ashes lOi^ 

B. — Contract for weighing and wheeling all material to furnaces. .09^^ 

C— Ladle contract 07i» 

D. —Pit cleaning contract (not removing slag and scrap), (see A.). 030^ 

Slag breaker, per slag 20* 

Two locomotive crane men, per turn, each per day 1 . 22 

Two locomotive crane helpers, per turn, each per da}^ 772 

The slag is cast in one great cake and removed bodily. 

Cost of 41 pounds flange rails May, l<S71t : 

One ton of ingots .$20.62 

Labor at rolls and furnaces 65 

Labor furnished 86 

General expenses 77 

Depreciation 50 

Coal and producer wages 31 

Repairs 86 

Charges 71 

Waste and miscellaneous 98 

Cost of one ton of rails f 26 . 35 

Rolling from very thick ingots direct to plates has been 
introduced at the Otis Works, in Cleveland, Ohio, and at 
Schoenberger & Co.'s, in Pittsburg, and no doul)t they have 
found an advantage over the issue of smaller thickness, in 
quality of plate, as well as m economy of manufacture. 

To get plates low in phosphorus, a selection of the l)est 
brands of West Coast hematite pig, or Swedish pig, and 
Spanish ore is used, and it is easy enough never to exceed 



( 68) 

.05 phosphorus, which is the highest that should ever be 
allowed in a good ])oiler plate, and less than is advisable 
for a plate for a locomotive lire l)ox. Locomotive lire boxes, 
in England and the Continent, are rarely, if ever, made of 
steel, while in America some of our best railroads use noth- 
ing else. The chief reason why locomotive fire boxes are 
not made of steel abroad, is i^hosphorus. If there be any 
other reason, it is carl)on. The neglect to keep the two 
elements in steel in small enough percentages, has been the 
causes of so many numerous failures of steel fire boxes on 
the other side of the ocean, causing them to be entirely 
condemned, while in America, close attention to this slight 
matter has l)rought the steel fire boxes into almost universal 
use. 

The Steel Company of Scotland have done considerable 
work in the manufacture of steel castings without blow 
holes, by the use of a silicide of iron, or a silicide of iron 
and manganese, shortly before the tapping of the metal out 
of the furnace. 

Very few people have knowledge of methods by which 
steel is almost perfectly welded. A recent disclosure is, 
that the steel nmst be very low in both phosphorus and 
carbon, and very high in manganese, say .05 P, 12 C, and 
.75 to 1.00 Mn. Such steel has been welded from scrap 
into a large steamboat shaft at the shipbuilding works of 
William Denny & Sons, Damberton, near Glasgow. 

The Steel Company of Scotland have another works 
besides those at Newton. They are at Blochairn, a few 
miles out of Glasgow, in another direction. These have 
also open hearth furnaces, and some very large plate mills, 
one of which will roll plates up to ten feet in width. 

The directors of the Steel Company, of Scotland, Limited, 
have declared a dividend at the rate of 7 per cent per annum. 
The dividend last year was at the rate of 5-^/8 per cent. 



(69) 

Belgium. 

Ill Belgium there are the J. Cockerill Works, at Seraing, 
the Augleur Works, and those of the Societe de Selessin. 
The first of these has eight converters, four of which are in 
reserve ; the second four converters, and tlie third Siemens- 
Martin furnaces. With the exception of the product of 
three blast furnaces, the pig-iron employed in the manufac- 
ture of steel mostly conies from England. 

The Steel works of J. Cockerill et Cie, at Seraing, are the 
most important in Belgium, and taking into account the 
mines of ore, coal and limestone, the coke furnaces and the 
ship 3'ard, they employ about 12,000 men. They comprise 
several blast furnaces, each furnished with Whitwell stoves. 

The principal dimensions of the blast furnaces are as fol- 
lows : 

Diameter of hearth 5.248 feet. 

Diameter of bosh > . • . 1 G.40 feet. 

Diameter of top 11 .48 feet. 

Total height 60 feet. 

Inclination of boshes G7 1-2 degrees. 

Capacity 7,942 cubic feet. 

Blast engines of the special vertical type of Seraing, so 
well known, and of which 123 are in operation in various 
places on the continent, furnish the necessary blast, at a 
pressure of 6 llis. 

The blowing cylinders of the engine have a diameter of 10 
feet and a stroke of <S feet. The steam cylinders are on the 
condenser principle. 

The normal numlier of revolutions of the engines is 13 
per minute. This furnishes 14,120 cubic feet of l)last, the 
quantity needed for the combustion of 120 metric tons of 
coke in 24 hours. 

To the riolit and left of the blowino- enoines are situated 
the mixing sheds for ore, and outside of these agam are the 



(70) 

pumping engines for the wliole of the hydraulic apparatus 
of the establishment. 

The sheds where the charges of ore are prepared, are sup- 
plied with hydraulic lifts, which raise the ore to the proper 
height, and allow of its being thrown into separate boxes or 
compartments, where a thorough mixture of raw material 
can be easily effected. 

In front, and to the north, is placed a group of boilers, 
made from Bessemer steel plate, 5 1-4 feet in diameter, 
and 49 feet in length. They each carry a large reheater, 
3.2S feet in diameter, and 49 feet in length. The boilers 
are heated by the escaped gasses from the blast furnaces. 

On the South side the blastfurnaces are situated alongside 
the Bessemer Foundry, which is divided into three separate 
compartments by a series of cast iron columns. 

The first compartment comprises the pig-bed, and also 
receives the ladles and the hydraulic lifts, which carry the 
molten metal from the furnaces to the converters. 

The second compartment contains the cupolas, where the 
remelting of the pig iron is effected Avhen at any time or 
from any cause it is thought advisable to work by the old 
process. 

The third compartment comprises the converter depart- 
ment. Here there are six converters, two to each pit, receiv- 
ing alternately the iron from the furnace, or fr-om the cupo- 
las, as the case may be. The latter are furnished with hot 
air receivers for keeping the liquid metal hot. 

Parallel with these buildings, and in the south side, are 
situated the blast engines for the converters, the pumps and 
the accumulators, having, to the right and to the left, a 
group of eight boilers each, of exactly the same make as 
those employed for the blast furnace engines. 

The Bessemer blast engines belong to the class constructed 
as a specialty by the Seraing Works, and were designed by 



(71 ) 

Kraft, the chief engineer of theCockerill Company. These 
engines are of the compound vortical type, realizing a very 
great economy in fuel, the consumption of coal being only 
2 3-4 lbs. per indicated horse power, per hour. The length 
of the rolling mill is 270 feet, comprising two divisions, each 
59 feet wide, and united by a row of columns 33 feet in 
height. 

In the first division are placed six large sized furnaces, 
whose bottoms measure 12 by 16 feet, and are sufficient to 
hold the ingots needed for the two rail mills situated in the 
next or third department. 

The first or blooming mill, has two pair of 3(3 inch rolls, 
and is worked by a reversible engine running 45 turns per 
minute by means of gearing. This has a separate engine 
for the condenser. 

The steam cylinders are 32 inches in diameter, and have 4 
feet stroke, the pinions being in the proportion of 1 to 2 1-2 
inches. 

The second or finishino- mill, has two housino^s with 24-inch 
rolls, and is worked by a direct acting reversible engine, 
running <S0 to 90 revolutions per minute. The engine has 
two steam cylinders, 40 inches in diameter, and acts directly 
on a crank from 12 to 14 inches in diameter, placed on the 
axis at the end of the combination. 

Special condensers are applied to this engine in order to 
moid the inevitable counter-pressure so prejudicial to the 
working of engines of this class. As a complement to the 
rolling mill a special rail-tinishing shop is erected, containing 
all the most modern and improved appliances for the pur- 
pose required. 

The molten metal is, immediately after it runs from the 
blast furnace into the tilt ladle, taken to the converters by 
hydraulic lifts and to the stationary bridge, on which it is 
carried on rails. It is weighed in a very simple manner 



( 72 ) 

while on the lift by means of the indications of an ordinary 
pressure gauge, placed in communication with the water in 
the hydraulic cylinder of the lift. 

No inconvenience is suffered if the iron l)e left an hour 
in the ladle, l)eyond the presence of a small solid bottom, 
Avhich can be remelted afterwards in one of the cupolas. 

In the middle of the decarburation, from 10 to 25 per 
cent of rail ends are added, the (juantitv varying according 
to the temperature of the bath. 

A remarkable fact connected with the steel making pro- 
cess at Seraing is that no sj)icgel whatever is introduced into 
the converter at the end of the bloAV, it having been found 
that the iron contains sufficient manganese to render* this 
addition unnecessar}' . 

\Alien the bands of the spectroscope have all disappeared, 
the slag is assayed in a very simple and practical manner, 
the end of the operation being determined simply by a color 
test. 

The modus operandi is as follows : The blow is moment- 
arily stopped and the converter inclined ; a paddle is then 
introduced through the mouth and dipped into the l)ath. 
This is then drawn out, steeped at once in water, and the 
thin sheet of investing slag taken off and compared with a 
standard scale. 

A lemon yellow slag corresponds to a very hard steel, 
containing : 

0.75 of carbon, or more. 

Orange yellow 0.60 of carbon, or more. 

T>ight brown 45 or carbon, or more. 

Dark brown 0.30 of carbon, or more. 

Bluish black 0.15 of carbon, or more. 

As soon as the metal in the converter has reached the de- 
sired degree of hardness, which can be regulated at will by pro- 
longing or shortening the blow, it is run into the moulds in 



(78) 

the usual way, and the ingots are taken to the forge as soon 
as crystaUzation has taken phice, and l^efore they have had 
time to cool. 

Three very light hydraulic cranes to each pit lift out the 
ingots rapidly, and without difficulty. The i)it itself is very 
wide, 33 feet in diameter, and is shallow, only 3 feet deep, 
and as the moulds are placed side by side, plenty of space 
is left for circulation in the center. 

The superiority of the Seraing rail mill has been so highly 
appreciated by continental iron and steel manufacturers, that 
within two years of its being i)ut into operation, the company 
received orders for five others of the same type. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE BASIC-BESSEMER PROCESS. 



BASIC LININGS LIME ADDITIONS BASIC PIG AFTER-BLOW 

WASTE BASIC STEEL OUTPUT QUALITY COST 

PROGRESS OF THE NEW PROCESS ITS 

COMMERCIAL SUCCESS. 



Serious difBculties have confronted those anxious to arri :e 
at the truth as to the practical operation of the Basic Pro- 
cess, chiefly with reference to ; 

The method of making Basic bricks ; 

The repairing of Basic l)ottoms ; 

The means of })roducing"iron that would blow both hot and 
pure ; 

The whole matter of waste ; 

The treatment and uses of Basic steel generally, and the 
extra cost in worlvs not adapted to the Basic process. 

Efforts have been made by persons, with interests antago- 
nistic to phosphoric ore development, to prejudice the minds 
and bias the judgment of the iron and steel world, hy the 
exposition of special criticisms l)y accepted authority, as the 
results of impartial and disinterested investigation. The 
showing of Tunner, for instance, that the process Avould not 
be likely to pay at Kladno, in Austria, was claimed to prove 
that it would pay nowhere. Tunner' s report was entitled to 



( ^-> 



^ 



consideration as that of an lUKjuestioned authority, and jet 
he ])a8es his showing purely upon loctd drawbacks. Again, 
certain cliemists have attempted to demonstrate that if cer- 
tain elements behave as they may be expected to, phospho- 
rus could not be eliminated, unless certain different reactions 
were made to occur, by introducing other elements, at an 
expense which would render the process in most localities 
impracticable, etc. 

Probably the most damaging criticism the Basic Process 
has met, emanated from Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, a few years 
ago, at the Dusseldorf meeting of the Iron and Steel Insti- 
tute, when he made the statement that Prof. Tunner, in the 
report of the Austrian Commis^sion, "Made out very clearly 
that the additional cost of the Basic treatment was something 
like 20 shillings per ton." From this started the idea that 
phosphoric pig must be at least $5.00 per ton cheaper than 
ordinary Bessemer pig, to allow the manufacturer to get out 
whole, without profit. 

The explanation of this statement by Prof. Tunner has 
gradually become better understood. As one example, in a 
note to his remarks at the Dusseldorf meeting, Mr. Bell 
says : "My attention has been called to the fact, that Prof. 
Tunner' s calculations were made in paper currency, and not 
in silver. His 9 1-2 florins per ton would, therefore, be 
equal to about 1(3 shillings and not 20 shillings per ton." 

Likewise, it appears that Prof. Tunner' s estimate was 
founded upon 18 per cent of waste by the Basic process and 
12 per cent by the acid process. The money difference was 
actually but 20 cents (silver) per ton of steel. Although 
with different irons the "waste" varies, the average in the 
Basic process is really only 4 per cent instead of 6 per cent 
greater. We find at Creusot, and at Brown, Bayley and 
Dixon's that the Basic waste is but 11 per cent ; at Angleur 
it is under 13, and at llhurort it is 15 to 15 1-2 ])er cent. 



(76) 

Again, it will be found that Prof. Tanner charged in 64 
cents per ton of steel for excess of Spiegel demanded in 
the Basic over the acid process. This is contradicted in the 
practice at Bolckow, Vaughan & Go's, where half the ordi- 
nary quantity of Spiegel is saved, a cheap, siliconized pig 
being substituted. 

Once more, lime additions are counted in by Prof. Tunner 
at a cost of 56 cents per ton of steel. That a fifth of a ton 
of cupola burned iron cost much less than this price in most 
iron regions is plain, and also that is worth something as slag 
in the blast furnace. The estimate of cupola expenses is 
$1.60 to $.'5.20 per ton of steel and charged against the Basic 
process only, because white iron "might not run hot enough 
from the blast furnace." This is answered at Creusot and 
at Bolckow, Yaughan & Go's., white iron being run at both 
— and at the latter works certainly — hot enough for practi- 
cal purposes. 

Finally, the figures of Prof. Tunner included the extra 
cost of securing a comparatively small basic product from an 
old fashioned plant, without any adaptation to the new re- 
quirements of basic repairs ; and there, extra costs included 
96 cents for l)lowing, stoves, labor, interest and general ex- 
penses. Seventy cents is the amount at which the extra cost 
of refractories and repairs is put, and is low enough. 

It should therefore appear plain, that in a properly 
ADAPTED WORKS Specially designed for the purpose, the Basic 
Process, in place of costing $5.00 per ton more, is in reality 
cheaper in practice than the acid process. The cost of lime 
additions and ore excess of lining materials would approxi- 
mate a dollar, but a saving might be made in the cost of 
both waste and recarbonizer, and some return might be ex- 
pected from slag as a blast furnace material, and added to 
this saving would be that of cheaper pig and the profit on a 
better quality of soft steel. 



(77) 

It was quite generally predicted, when the results of tho 
early basic experiments in England were hard, brittle and 
irregular steels, on account of consideralile reabsorption of 
l^hosphorus from the slag and incomplete dephosphorizatioi), 
that the basic process might l>e applied to rails and coarse 
work, but that what was really required in quantity was a 
pure, soft ingot iron adapted to lioiler ])lates, ships, bridges, 
and to the manifold structural purposes ; and it was asserted 
that the rule, that "pure products could spring alone from 
pure materials," was not likely, just yet, to l)e disproven. 
And when, a year later, Hoorde and Witkowitz had brought 
forth, l)y the basic process, and from pig so phosphoric that 
it had been abandoned for puddling, a steel which had in it 
more iron and less impurity than any Cumberland or 
Swedish Bessemer, it was then atiknowledged that the new 
process might possibly become of limited value, as, although 
it did not seem ca[)tible of producing the hard steel wanted 
in quantity, its soft products necessarily possessed a small 
range of usefulness. 

But putting aside this style of criticism, Prof, Tunner, 
Prof. Ackerman, Mr. Pourcel and others have scientifically 
explained the true difficulties in making hard steel by the 
basic process, and this is the obstacle : To burn out the 
phosphorus, l)lowing must be continued until qyqyy other 
hardening element has been eliminated. An addition of 
Spiegel enough to theoretically restore the necessary amount 
of carbon, on the contrary, restores too much phosphorus. 
The carbon in the spiegel combines with the oxygen of the 
oxide of iron in the bath, making carbonic oxide, and this 
reduces the phosphorus in the slag, restoring it to the steel. 
It was not that the steel could not be hardened, but that it 
possessed the brittle hardness characteristic of phosphoric 
steel. 

In connection with the Terre-noire steel casting manufac- 



( 7S ) 

ture, the remedy has been discovered, and has been demon- 
strated by Mr. Pourcel, It was to take u[) the oxide in the 
bath by silicon — by adding a pig high in silicon and low in 
carbon — so that carbon subsequently added, by means of 
Spiegel, would go into the steel instead of making carbonic 
oxide to reduce phosphorus ; this is the practice at Bolckow, 
Vaughan & Co.'s, at Witkowitz and at Montlucon, with the 
further economy of a saving of spiegel. At Montlucon, 
steel with i of 1 per cent carbon is regularly produced. The 
requirements of tire and axle steels, which are of moderately 
hard grades, are stated under Hoerde product, and are fully 
met by basic steel at these works. 

It has been suggested that the basic process would be of 
limited value in places where I or 2 per cent of manganese 
could not cheaply be put into the pig. The offices of man- 
ganese are : First, to prevent a high percentage of sulphur 
in the pig. It happens that some of the phosphoric ores, 
most used in France and Germany, are also very sulphurous ; 
such is not the case with many of the highly phosphoric ores 
of the United States. But it has been abundantly proven that 
plenty of lime and hot blast will remedy the difficulty. The 
users of the very sulphurous Luxembourg ores, Metz & 
Brothers, for example, formerly put silicon 0.30 to 0.50 
into their white pig ; now they put in but 0.12 to 0.15 sili- 
con, and they also keep the silicon under 1 per cent. The 
large furnace of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., which formerly 
produced a pig with high silicon and about 1-3 per cent of 
sulphur, now keep silicon down to 1.00 to 1.20 per cent, and 
sulphur to 0.20 or under with only 0.40 manganese in the 
pig. There is 35 per cent of lime in the slag of the blast fur- 
naces. Mr. Whit well, of Middlesboro, stated at the Dusseldorf 
meeting, that he had made some 4,000 tons of pig, averag- 
ing (10 analyses) sulphur 0.099, silicon 0.14, P. 2.951 and 
manganese 0.317, out of 1-4 Cleveland ores, 1-2 forge cin- 



(79) 

der to give the P., and 1-4 Spanish ore to give the manga- 
nese. 

Manganese also helps to remove the sulphur in the con- 
verter. 

But sulphur in higher proportions than it is likely to 
occur in the United States seems to do little harm. Mr. 
Edward Riley states that some of the very l)est rails have 
sulphur 0.10 to 0.18, and that the only objection to sulphur 
0.27 was red shortness. 

Manganese is useful to give heat early in the Bessemer 
operation ; before the burning of the phosphorous, when, as 
it should be, silicon is low. The large charges are sufficiently 
hot with al)out 1 per cent silicon and only 0.40 manganese. 

Manganese is probabh^ not indispensable, although 1-2 of 
1 per cent in the pig is useful. This amount can be put 
into pig at little or no extra cost in many parts of the United 
States. In any works a little cheap spiegel (no matter how 
phosphoric) can be run into the vessel along with the pig. 

It has been assumed by some experts that metal for the 
basic process must be so low in silicon that it can not be got 
hot enough directly from the blast furnace, and that the 
extra cost of cupola melting must be incurred. At Hoerde 
this was the case, but at Creusot there are no cupolas ; and 
although there is a little cemplaint of cool metal, the 
Creusot general i-esults are as good as those elsewhere. 
Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. use hot blast furnace metal direct, 
and with some delay in transportation, but the 10-ton 
charges are hot enough. Mr. Snelus said, at the Desseldorf 
meeting, that at West Cumberland blastfurnace metal would 
live longer than cupola metal in a ladle, and that while blast 
furnace metal would blow hot enough with 1.25 silicon, 
cupola metal needed 2.25 to 2.50 silicon. 

The very important consideration of decreased output, in 
a plant where basic lining can not be as well kept up as acid 



(80; 

linings, is, of course, a serious one, and a large outlay 
would 1)6 necessary to make necessary changes in an existing 
plant, working on the acid process, to be adapted to the new 
conditions of the basic process. 

Basic Linings. — Dolomite should have from 16 to 20 
per cent of manganese in order to preserve bricks, etc., 
from damage by the atmosphere. It should have 4 to 6 per 
cent of silicon and 3 to 5 per cent of allumina and oxide 
of iron, to promote coherence ; much more silicon than this 
would impair the basicity of the slag. 

Basic bricks are molded without much pressm'e, from raw 
dolomite ground to pass a 10 to 15 mesh sieve and wet with 
water ; they are dried in about 48 hours, at a temperature of 
120o Fahrenheit, and are then burned about a week, includ- 
ing heating and cooling. They are set in vessel lining with 
a mortar of pulverized dolomite brick and 5 per cent of coal 
tar. Open hearth bottom bricks are laid raw in the open 
hearth furnace and burned in place at Creusot. 

Burning Bricks. — In basic brick-making, two important 
economies have been developed : First — burning the basic 
bricks in a thin stratum on the top of a kiln nearly full of 
acid bricks, there being a separating layer of maganese or 
bauxite bricks l)etween the two to prevent fluxing. A thick 
pile of basic bricks in a kiln is so thrown together as to pro- 
duce many wasters, on account of the excessive shrinkage. 
A thill layer of basic bricks burned by themselves would 
require an excessive amount of fuel. Second — The regen- 
erative gas kiln gives a larger economy of fuel ; the cooling- 
bricks heat the incoming air for the burnino; bricks. This 
kiln also produces better bricks by means of gradual heat- 
ing and cooling, and of a uniformly intense temperature 
while burning. 

Rammed Linings and Bottoms. — Dolomite should be 
thoroughly calcined, at as high a temperature as the kiln or 



(81) 

furnace will stand, in order (first), that no carbonic acid 
may be left, and second, that less moisture may be absorbed ; 
these respectively disintegrate the linings ; third, to 
increase the mechanical hardness and duration of the lining ; 
and fourth, to promote economy by absorbing less tar than 
soft burned dolomite requires. 

Dolomite may be hard-burned in a basic-lined cupola, 
with 1,800 pounds of coke per ton of calcined stone. This 
is a convenient and economical method. 

Dolomite should l)e ground and used while fresh burned, 
so that it will have little time to absorb moisture. 

Rammed linino; and bottom stuff should be mixed m a 
mortar mill with from 10 to 13 per cent of coal tar which 
has been boiled to expel its ammonia and water. This mix- 
ture "will stick pretty well to the burned skin of a lining or 
bottom. The volatile parts of the tar soon burn aAvay, 
leaving the particles of dolomite bound with a neutral and 
perfectly refractory coke-cement. 

Bottoms of the above dolomite and tar mixture should be 
burned at a low red heat long enough to coke the tar, and 
while burning, they should be held on all sides in an iron 
mould, which will prevent their swelling, and will give hard 
surfaces. Bottoms for tuyeres should be moulded around 
hollow iron dummy tuyeres, for the same reason. 

Ordinary acid tuyeres last in dolomite bottoms nearly as 
well as in acid bottoms ; but dolomite tuyeres, made of 
■calcined stone and 5 per cent of tar, formed in a split 
mould, and burned with the bottom, give better results. 
Pin bottoms, made of perfectly calcined dolomite, with 10 
to 13 per cent tar, and properly burned, as above described, 
endure about as well as ordinary tuyere bottoms. 

Ball Stuff. — A mixture of calcined dolomite with 20 per 
cent of tar, thrown as ball stuff, or plastered as mortar into 
joints, such as the joint around a bottom, or around a newly 



( 82 ) 

set tuyere, becomes semi-fluid, and runs at once, if the 
lining is hot, into the smallest crack, where the tar quickly 
cokes, leaving the doTomite well cemented. Metal may run 
into the vessel within a few minutes after the joint is thus 
stopped. 

Slagging of vessel noses is prevented by making the noses 
small to compress and increasing the temperature of the 
gases, and by lining the noses with the best ordinary lire- 
brick, separated from the dolomite lining by some neutral 
material. 

The practice seems to be growing in the direction of 
rammed, rather than brick linings. 

Neither rammed nor brick linings stand, so far, above 80 
to 100 heats, without needing such extensive repairs around 
the bottom sides, that the vessel must be cooled down. 

About one hundred pounds of dolomite bricks and rammed 
stuff are required in the average practice, per ton of steel. 

The variations in the composition of pig used in the Basic 
process are considerable, as shown by the following table : 





a 


a 
a 

a 


> 

9 ® 


itkowitz 
average. 


> 

11 


1 
8 S 


1 

> 

'B ^ 

^5 


olckow, 
Vaugiiu 
average. 


Best Mixture. 




^ 


^ 


O 


^ 


tf 


K 


-^ 


cq 




Si... 


1.40 


0.06 


0.70 


1.00 


0.80 


30 


1.40 


1.00 


0.50 to 0.75 


P... 


3.00 


0.96 


2.30 


1.60 


2.00 


1.75 


2.00 


1.75 


2.00 to 3.00 


S.... 


0.30 


0.05 


0.20 


0.15 


0.15 


0.15 


0.14 


0.20 


under 0.15 


Mn. 


2.25 


0.36 


1.50 


2.00 


1.10 


1.00 


0.70 


0.40 


0.50 to 1.00 



As first rate steel is made from all the above mixtures, the 
process is elastic, and adaptable to various regions. Phos- 
phorus should be over one per cent m order to maintain the 
temperature of the bath. Higher phosphorus undoubtedly 



(83) 

causes greater waste, but its combustion more completely 
cleanses the bath from other impurities. Silicon must not be 
much over one per cent, so that it will "not impair the basicity 
of the slag. Manganese is useful up to one per cent, or a 
little over. There are very few kinds of iron which cannot 
be successfully used, though, on the other hand, there are 
some which give specially good results. The only partial 
exception to be made is in the case of pig iron, which con- 
tains materially over three-tenths per cent of sulphur, or 
over 2 1-4 per cent of silicon. But even pig of this compo- 
sition can be readily treated if subjected to a preliminary 
desulphurizing or desiliconizing process. The dephosphori- 
zers' ideal pig has a composition falling roughly between the 
following: limit : 



Silicon. 
Per cent. 


Phosphorus. 
Per cent. 


Sulphur. 
Per cent. 


Manganese. 
Per cent. 


• .5 to 1.7 


.8 to 3. 


under .3 


Not over 2 1-2 



The chief source of the phosphoric pig, next to the phos- 
phoric ore, is puddling cinder. Enough Bassic-Bessemer 
slag has been used in tlie blast furnace to make its economy 
as an ore probable. It appears to be practicable to make 
pig low in both silicon and sulphur, from almost any ores, 
l)y means of using plenty of lime in the blast furnace. 

German Basic Pig. — The Germans have done most in 
the study of the basic process, and the requirements of the 
metal used for it. The chemical composition aimed at is 2 
to 3 per cent of phosphorus, 2 to 2 1-2 per cent of mangan- 
ese, 2.5 to 3.5 per cent of carbon, less than one per cent of 
silicon, and less than 0.1 per cent of sulphur. Herr Hll- 
genstock insists that the manufacture of such pig is the 
simplest and most favorable known to the ironmasters, and 



(84) 

that there is a great difference between producing such 
metal and making Bessemer pig with guaranteed percent- 
age of silicon. All that is necessary is, to run the furnace 
hot. It has been urged that the phosphoric acid in the 
ores is difficult to reduce. While it is true that small 
quantities of phosphoric acid — 0.2 per cent at Ilsede and 
0.32 to 0.45 per cent elsewhere — are found in the cinder, 
and that 0.44 per 'cent of phosphorus has been detected 
in flue dust, it is nevertheless true that phosphoric acid is 
readily reduced at high temperatures, and that it goes into 
the pig. In a general way, it is safe to say that the quantity 
of phosphorus in the iron can be closely ascertained from the 
percentage of phosphoric acid in the ore. The cubical con- 
tents of furnace for the production of one ton of iron per 24 
hours is only 88 to 106 cubic feet for the Basic pig, against 
141 cubic feet for ordinary Bessemer, so that 100 tons per 
day can be run out of a much smaller furnace ; and Herr 
Hilgenstock questions whether any increase in the size of the 
furnace beyond the limit of 8,800 to 10,600 cubic feet of cubi-, 
cal contents leads to a corresponding reduction in the quan- 
tity of coke used. As compared with the manufacture of 
Bessemer pig, the production of Basic pig requires 880 lbs. 
of coke less per ton of iron made. These statements are 
very important as bearing upon the relative cost of Basic and 
Bessemer .steel, and they show that the success of the former 
does not entirely depend upon a difference in the price of 
jDure and phosphoric ores. 

Basic Additions. — Lime from an}^ carbonate, suitable 
for blast furnaces, seems to answer. From 15 to 22 per 
cent on the pig — average about 18 per cent — is added. 
Pourins: off the slao; and makino; a third of the basic addi- 
tion, just before the drop of the flame, may save lime and 
bottoms, but it will cause delay. 

Lime must be preheated, especially if the charges are 



(85) 

cool, as they are generally likely to be. Heating the lime- 
stone to a bright yellow, in a cupola, with 10 to 15 per cent 
of coke, and then running it by gravity into the vessel^ 
saves previous burning, and is an economical and expeditious 
method. Heating lime in the vessel, is, of course, incom- 
patible with a large out put. 

Blowing in lime seriously retards the blast and cools the 
charge. 

The time of the basic blow varies, as does that of the 
acid blow, according to tuyere area, blast, pressure, or other 
causes. Together with the stopping for tests and the after- 
blow (from 2 to 5 minutes), it is the longer by a few min- 
utes. But it need not be the longer in improved practice, 
because tests are, already largely, and are likely to be 
together, dispensed with when mixtures are uniform ; and a 
greater blowing power and quicker blowing are generally 
recommended by experts, and are readily provided. 

Tuyeres, with 5-8 to 3-4 holes, appear to last quite as well 
as our 3-8 hole tuyeres ; and with a given pressure of dis- 
charge, they reduce the strain on the engine considerably. 
The enormous friction of this volume of air passing through 
long, small holes is simply waste. The same area of larger 
holes does not, indeed, distribute the blast so much, but it 
gives a stronger blast, and so produces the desired mechan- 
ical effect as completely. 

Before the metal (which may be either employed direct 
from the blast furnace without intervening remelting, or, if 
for any reason this is not convenient, may have been remclted 
in a cupola) is run into the converter, from 15 to 18 per 
cent of its weight of common well burnt lime is thrown into 
the vessel. The metal is then introduced and the charo;e is 
blown in the ordinary way to the point at which it is stopped, 
that is, till the disappearance of the carbon as indicated by 
the drop of the flame. The dephosphorizing process requires. 



( 8*^^ ) 

however, to be continued for a further 100 to 300 seconds, 
this period of so-called afterblow, which would be prejudi- 
cial both to quality and yield in the ordinary process. The 
termination of the operation is shown by a peculiar change 
in the flame, and checked by a sample of the metal being 
rapidly taken from the tuinied down converter, and flattened 
under the hammer, quenched and broken, so as to indicate 
by its fracture whether the purification is complete. A prac- 
tical eye can immediately tell whether or not this is the case. 
If the metal requires further purification, this is effected by 
a few seconds further blowing. The operation is thus, as 
will be seen, but little different from the ordinary Bessemer 
process. The differences that have been indicated, viz. : 
The lime lining, the lime addition, and the afterl^low are, 
however, suflficient not only to enable the whole of the 
jDhosphorus, which would be otherwise untouched, to be 
completel}^ removed, but the silicon, of which inconvenient and 
ever dangerous quantities are occasionally left in the regular 
Bessemer process, is also entirely eliminated, while at least 
60 per cent of any sulphur also untouched in the ordinary 
process, which may have l)een present in the pig, is also 
expelled. It is found, too, that the once dreaded phosphorus 
is of most substantial assistance in securing, by its combus- 
tion, the intense heat necessary for obtaining a successful 
blow and hot metal. If it is desired to j^roduce ingot iron, 
or a metal differing only from puddled iron by its homoge- 
neity and solidity, the usual recarburizing addition of spiegel 
is omitted or replaced l)y one-half per cent of rich ferro 
manganese, which represents a considerable economy in the 
manufacture of harder steel. The phosphorus is oxidized 
by the blast, forming phosphoric acid, which, finding itself 
in presence of two strong bases, oxide of iron and lime, 
unites with the latter of them to form phosphates of lime, 
which passes mto the slag. 



( «7 ) 

Waste due to the after-blow, is no greater, at Creusot, 
than the waste in the ordinary process. The waste at other 
works is from 2 to 4 per cent greater ; it averages about 15 
per cent, not including the iron which slops out of too small 
vessels. The cost of waste would usually be less with phos- 
phoric irons at current relative prices. A waste of 16 per 
cent on a $16.25 iron would cost the same as a waste of 13 
per cent on a $20.00 iron. 

Spiegel is now used in less quantity in the basic than in 
the acid process, thus not only economizing material, but 
leading to the production of a purer steel, as follows : 

A highl}^ siliconized pig is substituted for half the usual 
amount of spiegel. The silicon takes up the oxide in the 
bath, so that the carbon in the spiegel afterwards added, 
w^ill not be oxidized into carljonic oxide, which would reduce 
the phosphorus in the slag. And all the maganese in the 
spiegel goes into steel. 

The release of phosphorus from the slag is largely pre- 
vented at Bolckow, Vaughan & Co.'s, by using ferro-silicon 
before spiegel. It was known that the cause of the release 
was the reducing action of the carbonic oxide on the phos- 
phoric acid in the slag, and that this carbonic oxide was 
produced by the action of the carbon, in the spiegel upon 
the oxide of iron dissolved in the bath. Some means were 
wanted to reduce this oxide of iron without producing car- 
bonic oxide. After some trials the system so important in 
making the Terrenoire solid steel castings was adopted. 
Eight per cent of a pig containing 2 per cent of silicon is 
added after blowing. 

This puts in the bath 0.12 to 0.15 silicon, all of which is 
used in absorbing all the oxygen in the oxide of iron. Then 
3 1-2 per cent to 20 per cent manganese spiegel is added, 
which gives about 0.40 manganese in the bath, all or nearly 
all of which remains in the steel. 



(88) 

Another important result of this treatment is that more 
carbon can be put in the steel ; all the carbon added will 
remain, because the oxygen in the bath, which would other- 
wise take it up, has been removed by silicon. At these 
works, steel is regularly made vdih C. 0.50, 

Hard steel hardened by carbon, and not also made brittle 
by jjhosphorus, may be produced by the basic process, in 
the manner above stated. After the oxygen in the bath is 
taken up by the silicon, any added carbon will go into the 
metal, and will not get made into carbonic oxide to reduce 
phosphorus. 

Slag is generally poured off before the addition of spiegel,, 
to still further jDrevent the restoration of its phosphorus to 
the bath. This operation causes but slight delay ; probably 
no more than slowly pouring it into and over the side of the 
ladle. As the slag is very voluminous, including 16 to 20 
per cent of lime, as well as the ordinary impurities, the 
plant should be arranged to catch it in the cars as it pours 
from the vessel and from the ladle, and to draw the cars 
to the dump by a direct and uninterrupted road. Breaking 
this slag up and shoveling it out would be quite impracticable. 

Sound casting is due to making the steel hot, and teeming 
it as cool as possible without sculling ; also, to slow pouring 
by means of a small, smooth stream. Large ladles must be 
emptied through a fore-hearth or funnel, and the plant must 
be so arranged that casting can be going on all the time. 
These precautions are particularly necessary for basic steel,, 
which is apt to be a little " rising." 

At Creusot, ])ricks have been abandoned, and the vessel is 
lined with a mixture of magnesian lime (35.8 per cent mag- 
nesia, 53 per cent lime), and from 10 to 11 per cent of tar. 
The bottom is rammed up around ordinary tuyeres . Strangely , 
these tuyeres are more rapidly attacked than the lime mix- 
ture around them, the greatest destruction aoino- on duriner 
the afterblow. The bottoms stand from 15 to 20 blows. 



(89) 

and the vessel lining 80 to 100. As for the grade of pig 
worked, Creusot started mth 0,9 phosphorus, and failed, 
increased to from 1.7 to 1.8 per cent, and did better; and 
has now reached from 2.50 to 3 per cent, which is believed 
insures good results. Silicon is kept low, about 1-3 per 
cent being maximum, ordinary amount. Carbon ranges 3 
per cent, and manganese from 1.50 to 2 per cent. Sulphur 
must not be greater than 0.20 per cent. This is evidently 
the weak point, as it requires heavy quantities of lime, high 
temperatures, and considerable manganese in the charge of 
the blast furnace to produce pig so low in sulphur from 
ordinary ores. The charge of this pig at Creusot, where it 
is taken directly from the blast furnace, is 8 tons in a 10-ton 
acid converter, which has been j^reviously charged with 18 
per cent of strongly pre-heated lime, and 1.5 per cent of 
fluorspar. About 10.5 to 12 minutes after the beginning of 
the blow, at the close of the decarbonizing period, the blast 
is stopped, and what fluid cinder there is then poured off. 
This cinder is high in silica (22 percent), in lime and magnesia 
(47 per cent), and in phosphoric acid (12 per cent). Then 
a second addition of 5 to 6 per cent of lime is made, and 
the afterblow begins. This lasts 4 or 5 minutes, and as 
much as possible of the cinder is poured off. This cinder 
runs 12 per cent of silica, 54 per cent of lime and mag- 
nesia, 11 per cent of oxide of iron and manganese, and 16 
per cent of phosiDhoric acid. The charge of spiegeleisen 
with 18 per cent of manganese is 10 per cent of Aveight 
of pig. One-third is put into the steel when in the con- 
verter, and 2-3 when in the ladle. 

The average composition of basic and acid rail steel at 
Creusot is as follows : ^^^^^^ ^^^^ 

Carbon 0.430 0.400 

Silicon trace 0.300 

Manganese 0.760 0.660 

Phosphorus 0.060 0.075 

Sulphur 0.029 0.040 



(90) 

The characteristic of basic steel is the absence of silicon. 
Phosphorus, it will be noted, is lower; while with sulphur, if 
great care be taken, a very good metal can be obtained. On 
the whole, experience at Creusot has shown that chemically, 
basic steel can l)e made of a more uniform and of a better 
quality than ordinary acid Bessemer steel. As for the phys- 
ical structure of the steel, blow holes were troublesome at 
Creusot in the beginning. It was found, however, that an 
increase in the percentage of phosphorus in the pig proved 
beneficial, and direct experiment, by running a blow hot and 
a similar charge cold, by the addition of scrap, showed that 
the inference that this was due to a hotter finish produced 
by higher i)hosphorus was correct. Highly pre-heating the 
basic additions was adopted with the same end in view. 

The quality of the steel made by the Basic Process has 
been thoroughly ascertained, as far as analyses will reveal 
it, and pretty well determined by physical tests, both hot 
and Cold. The soft and medium grades contain very much 
less phosphorus and silicon than any steels can have which 
are made by the acid process, either open hearth or Besse- 
mer ; and they may be made practically free from both these 
elements. In some steel, traces only, which could not be 
weighed, have been found by chemists. Some dead soft 
Witkowitz steel has P. 0.005 to 0.008 by Seraing analysis, 
and some Witkowitz plate steel blown and rolled, had P. 
0.017 by Creusot analysis. Phosphorus in basic steel ordi- 
narily runs from 0.04 to O.OG ; it sometimes reaches P. 0.14, 
but this amount can always be prevented by proper over- 
l)lowing and subsequent treatment, as already explained. 
There is no more uncertainty about removing phosphorus in 
the basic process than there is al:>out removing carbon in the 
acid process ; enough blowing will positively always do it. 
Silicon is always reduced to a trace or a few thousandths. 
Sulphur is reduced about 60 per cent. 



(1)1) 

It is this remarlvable purity and mildness which, together 
with its cheapness, is likely to give the basic steel an enor- 
mous use for boilers, ships, bridges, and all structures re- 
quiring toughness. It seems also to fulfill all requirements 
for rails, tires, axles, etc. The harder grades have not been 
largely produced, but it is well ascertained that they may be, 
without risk of brittleness from taking up phosphorus, as 
already explained. 

Those occupied in the manufacture of Bessemer steel 
know how difficult it was to obtain, with regularity, the extra 
soft steel employed for boilers in the French navy. Such 
metal appeared only to be made in the Martin furnace, and 
even then it was necessary to employ jjicked material in its 
manufacture. But by the new Bessemer dephosphorizing 
process, steels of an extraordinary degree of softness 
is obtained with the greatest facility, and at a i^rice less 
than that of ordinary rail steel. By treating a pig con- 
taining from 1.5 to 2 per cent of manganese, we obtain, 
after the decarbonization and dephosphorization is finished, 
a non-oxidized metal, which does not contain more than 
traces of carbon and manganese. If it be desired that the 
steel should be entirely free from any tendency to red 
shortness, we may add from 0.25 to 0.50 per cent of rich 
ferro manganese to remove any traces of oxygenization. 
The only precaution to be taken to obtain a soft steel is 
to choose pig (if direct working be employed) which con- 
tains sufficient manganese, Avith 2 per cent as a maximum, 
or to make a suitable mixture of pigs, if cupolas be 
employed. But this will be by no means the only outlet for 
dephosphorized metal, for up to the present time the high price 
of soft steel has been the great obstacle which has prevented 
many people from employing it in construction. But by the 
new process soft metal can be produced at a less price than 
ordinary (puddled) iron. There is, therefore, no longer any 



(92) 

reason, apart from routine, why steel should not be employed 
in all cases in place of iron, to which it is so much superior in 
strength. 

Its freedom from red shortness, is generally conspicuous, 
noticeably the hot tests and the plate rolling of Witkowitz 
steel cast after overblowing without any spiegel or other 
addition ; nor is the pig used i^articularly high or low in any 
element. The rather smooth rolling of basic steel at Creusot 
was attributed to the practicability of high heating in the 
absence of silicon. This quality especially adapts the steel 
to drop forgings and stamped sheet work, for which it is 
largely used. It is generally more "rising" than acid steel, 
but this difficulty may be mitigated by proper casting, as 
before indicated. 

The inquiry is largely and anxiously made : Will basic steel 
take the place of wrought iron for welded work, in the innu- 
merable country blacksmith shops where, in the aggregate, 
such a large quantity of material is used, and where the new 
material will, for a long time, be accejjted or condemned, as 
it stands or fails under old temperature and methods ? It is 
probable that no fusion product will ever weld as easily and 
soundly, by old methods, as a puddled product. Through 
the latter there is diffused a welded powder in the shape of 
slag, which j)rotects the surfaces from oxidization, and which 
melts and washes off oxide when it is formed. The fusion 
product, on the contrary, is almost perfectly free from 
slag and must be treated with an artificial slag, and man- 
ipulated with such a degree of skill that steel welding 
may be called a new art. Boiler plate clippings and ingot 
iron scrap are welded in the rolls and drawn into sound bars, 
angles, rivets, rods, etc., in various foreign works, and this 
material is hand welded, easily and perfectly, in the smith 
shops of the various steel works, and in other smith shops 
where the new art has been learned. 



( 93 ) 

The matter of cost, which has been made so mysterious 
and inscrutable, is no longer difficult. We now have data 
as to every element, within such exact limits that any one 
may estimate the cost of basic steel in his own region, 
nearly as correctly as that of acid steel. Estimates may be 
safely based on the following quantities : 

Waste, 15 to IG per cent on the pig. 

Lime additions, charged red hot, 18 to 20 per cent on the 
pig. 

Lining material, 100 pounds per ton of steel. 

Extra labor, say 5 cents per ton of steel. 

Spiegel, 5 per cent of 12 to 15 per cent manganese. 

High silicon Bessemer pig, 5 per cent. 

The slag has a value, but need not be considered. 

The item of greatest importance is, of course, the com- 
parative cheapness of phosphoric pig. 

The greater value of the steel for special purposes must 
also be considered. 

These are the elements of cost, based on about an equal 
output of basic and acid steel ; and the basic output need 
be neither "considerably," nor for that matter, any less 
when the plant is specially designed for the basic process. 

It should appear that with $5.00 per ton lower pig, the 
economy in waste and spiegel and the value of the slag 
should compensate for the lime additions and extra linings, 
and that the saving on ingots should be the whole difference 
in the cost of pig. 

While there is no doubt that the economy of fuel and 
labor in the manufacture of steel as compared ^\ath that of 
iron, is more conspicuous in the case of rail making than 
in most other departments of manufacture, puddling has, 
comparatively speaking, stood still for the last ten years. 
Economy in steel making has made, and is making, rapid 
progress, and the developments and modifications introduced 



( 1)4 ) 

during the last four 3'ears give assurance of even more rapid 
advance in the future. 

In Germany, the manufacture of dephosphorized steel is 
in operation in eight large firms, viz, : Messrs. De Wendel,. 
Ilerr Stumm, and the Union Works at Dortmund, each ^^^th 
two converters, and the works of Rothe, Ij'de, Bochum,. 
Horde, the Rhenish Steel Works and Herr Gienauth. During 
the current year they have largely increased their make. 
Four works make nothing but dephosphorized metal, and 
each of these is said to be full of orders, for their special 
soft steel. Besides these, new basic works are started by 
the Ilsede Works, the Maximilians Muette Works, the Rohr- 
back Works, and others. The Ilsede AVorks will be on a 
large scale, starting with four converters. The new basic 
plant of the Horde Works is of an entirely novel design, 
the ladle crane being a hydraulic crane on a locomotive car- 
riage, and arranged so as to be able to serve three or more 
vessels in a straight line. Basic extensions are also in pro- 
gress by the Pha3nix and Oberhausen Works. 

In France the Creusot works continue dephosphorizing 
steadily, both with the Bessemer and Siemens processes. 
Creusot was one of the first works to make a series of tests, and 
though success in the open-hearth was attained almost at the 
start, it to^k some time before anything like regular working 
could be reached in the Bessemer converter. Now, of 
course, tlie cause is fully understood, being chiefly the 
nature of the pig employed ; but at the time it was used 
as a very strong argument against the process, and the 
reports of the quality of the rails made caused much alarm. 

Four other large works, solely devoted to dephosphorizing 
are in operation, while a fifth, at St. Nazaire, though it has 
better facilities for olitaining Spanish ore than any other 
works in France, has been so arranged as to adopt the old 
or new process at will. The Joeuf Works has a plant, con- 



(95) 

sisting of four converters. The Longwy Works has three 
vessels, and the works of the Societe du Nord et de I'Est 
have two vessels. The output of dephosphorized steel in 
France now exceeds 3,000 tons per week. 

In England, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. are m>aking 2,500 
tons of Cleveland steel per week, and are preparing to 
double this output. These, with lesser works in other sec-* 
tions, have enlarged the actual output of dephosphorized 
steel in Europe, in little more than a year, from under 3,000 
to nearly 9,000 tons a week. The total make is, therefore, 
at the rate of over 450,000 tons per year. In England, 
there are 6 converters building for the process, which will 
probably produce about 3,500 tons a week. On the Conti- 
nent, there are 25 converters in com'se of erection for the 
process, with a minimum capacity of 9,000 tons a week. 

The perfect success of the Basic process is therefore 
assured. There is now no doubt, of eliminating the phos- 
phorus doAvn to the merest trace, and of excluding most of the 
sulphur likewise. It is in successful operation already in Bel- 
gium, Germany, France and England. Little, if any, difficulty 
is found in dealing with French ores as they contain consider- 
able sulphur. So well is this appreciated there, that Schnei- 
der & Co. have a "plant" in course of erection to operate 
this process on an extensive scale. Ores with over 2 per cent 
of phosphorus have been found to be as tractable as ores hold- 
ing the merest trace ; the most impure and inexpensive iron 
ores thus Ijecome as serviceable as the costlier ores. Ample 
evidence of this may be offered. Rails made for the British 
railways have passed through the severest tests and been 
declared equal to any made from Cumberland or Spanish 
hematite ore. The product has been uniformly good, like- 
wise, on the continent, where thousands of tons of steel have 
been manufactured from highly phosphoric pig, and with 
the most satisfactory results. 



(96) 

The mechanical difficulties obstructing the rapid develop- 
ment of the new system have finally disappeared and its 
adoption is, in the opinion of many experts, simply a matter 
of availability of location, as the introduction of the basic 
process is cei'tainly an innovation in steel manufacture, sec- 
ond to none in its history. These inventions will in reality 
prove no less important to the world than those of Kelly 
and Bessemer. Changes in the whole field of American 
manufacture vdW be involved, and also changes in the loca- 
tion of works, in the relative value of Lake Superior to other 
ores, in cost of raw material for both the open hearth and 
crucible processes, in the present standing of the puddling 
furnace, and prominently in the labor question. 

The questions of commercial interest to which the intro- 
duction of the new process gives birth, therefore, inaugurate 
a revolution of which it is impossible to foretell the exact 
outcome. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE HARRISON STEEL COMPANY. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS OF THE HARRISON STEEL COM- 
PANY THE NEW BASIC-BESSEMER PLANT, DESIGNED 

ACCORDING TO THE IMOST IMPR0^T:D PLANS 
OP STEEL WORKS CONSTRUCTION. 



The site of these Steel works is located at the town of 
Harrison, in the Countj^ of Jackson, Illinois, on a plateau 
fifty feet above the waters of the Big Muddy Eiver. The 
surface area covers about 100 acres. 

TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 

The railroad facilities are afforded by the St. Louis -Coal 
Railroad to Pinckneyville, which line is in connection with 
the Cairo Short Line to St. Louis and to Cairo ; also with 
the Illinois Central and its connections to Chicago and the 
Northwest and to New Orleans ; and with the Vincennes 
Division of the Wal)ash Line, making connections at Vin- 
cennes for Louisville to Cairo, Cincinnati and the East ; and 
again to Chester on the Mississippi River, fifty-two miles from 
Harrison, at which point connection is made to Iron Moun- 
tain, Pilot Knol), Shepherd Mountain, Russell Mountain, 
"and Southwest Ore District" by the Chester, Iron Moun- 



(98) 

tain and Western Railroad, now in course of construction ; 
and at the same place, by river, to all points on the ]\Iissis- 
sippi River between St. Paul and New Orleans, and to all 
points on the Ohio River ; and at Cairo, situated at the junc- 
tion of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, sixty-five miles from 
Harrison, connection is also made with tlie St. Louis, Iron 
Mountain & Southern Railway to the Southwest, connecting 
there also with the Texas Pacific Railway. At Paducah, on 
the Ohio River readied by a projected lino of the Danville, 
Olney and Ohio River Railway, distant about seventy-five 
miles from Harrison, connection is made with the Cliatta- 
nooga & St. Louis Railroad to the Southeast ; and with 
steamers and barges from the Cumberland and Tennessee 
Rivers. 

The railroad and water facilities, so far as transportation 
to and from the works for finished product or materials is 
concerned, are deemed to be unexcelled hy any other plant in 
this country, when considered in connection with the prox- 
imity of the raw material and the nearness of the market 
for the finished product. 

THE WATER SUPPLY. 

Water is o])tained in abundance from a reservoir supplied 
by the Big Muddy River, 1,000 feet distant, conveyed to a 
well situated in the works, at which pumps are placed ; 
thence discharged into six tanks 25 by 15 by 6 feet each, 
from which supply pipes lead to all the various depart- 
ments of the works. The water is good, containing nothing 
of an injurious character to boilers or to the packing in the 
cranes, and is what is technically known as " soft water." 

FUEL. 

The works set upon and are surrounded by coal fields of 
large extent. The coal is a good coking or free coal, and 
of excellent quality for fuel and iron smelting. 



(99) 

Its character is shown by the following analysis, made by 

Messrs. Potter & Riggs, of the Washington University, St. 

Louis : 

Moisture 6.90 per cent. 

Volatile matter 31.33 per cent. 

Fixed carbon 56.02 per cent. 

Ash 5.75 per cent. 

100.00 per cent. 

Sulphur separately determined 0.83 per cent. 

This coal, seventy-live feet below the surface, is the No. 8 
of this series of veins nine to ten feet thick, and is the 
highest vein developed in the Mississippi Valley. 

Underlying this vein, at a depth of forty feet, is vein No. 7 
from four to five feet thick, and by analysis made by same 
chemists, contains : 

Moisture - 3.95 per cent. 

Volatile matter 36.95 per cent. 

Fixed carbon 48.55 per cent. 

Ash o 10.55 per cent. 

100.00 per cent. 
Sulphur separately determined 1.96 per cent. 

The color of the ash indicates the presence of very little 
iron, so that the sulphur is probably in the organic form, or 
in part as a sulphate of lime. The No. 7 and No. 8 veins 
are situated in Williamson County, seventeen miles distant 
from the site of the steel Avorks, and is the coal from which 
the coke is made. 

In Jackson County, underlying the site where the steel 
works are located and contiguous thereto, is vein No. 2, of 
from four to seven feet in thickness, known as the "Big 
Muddy Coal," which will be used for supplying the gas pro- 
ducers, and for general purposes. 

These extensive coal properties are owned by the Carbon- 
dale Coal and Coke Company, and a contract for a supply 



( 100 ) 

of fuel for all the requirements of the Harrison Steel Com- 
pany has ])een made with that company for a term of twenty 
years, based upon a nominal profit above the cost of mining, 
thus insuring an unfailing supply of fuel at nearly minimum 
oost. 

The St. Louis Coal Railroad Company and the Carbon- 
dale Coal and Coke Company are owned by the same pai'- 
ties, under the same management and inseparably connected 
for the next twenty-three years by contracts, sanctioned and 
ratified by every stockholder of both companies, and whose 
signatures are thereto attached. 

ORE SUPPLIES. 

Iron ore is in abundant supply in INIissouri, Tennessee, 
Alabama, and Arkansas, and is within easy reach by the 
many excellent railway and river connections made with the 
St. Louis Coal Railroad, and its leased lines, a corporation 
with which the Harrison Steel Company has made a trans- 
portation contract for a term of twenty years at a certain 
price per ton per mile for carriage of raw materials and 
finished products. 

UNDER THE SITE. 

The nature of the soil and earth under the site at every 
point is as follows : 

First strata, G feet in depth, sandy loam. 
Second strata, 2 feet in depth, sandy clay. 
Third strata, 5 feet in depth, sandy clay, hard. 
Fourth strata, 4 feet in depth, tough clay. 
Fifth strata, 3 feet in depth, tough clay, dark. 
Sixth strata, 7 feet in depth, bhie clay, hard. 
Seventh strata, 14 feet in depth, brown clay. 
Eighth strata, hard pan. 
Total, 41 feet to the slate overlying the coal. 

FIRECLAY, LIMESTONE, ETC. 

During the excavations for the foundations of the build- 
ings, advantage has been taken of the excellent quality of 



(101) 

the clay for the manufacturing of building l)ricks at a cost 
not exceeding $4.00 per thousand. The fuel is cheap, and 
the clay can be burned to a hardness suitable for sewers 
and foundations about the works. 

Limestone is conveniently located, and can be lirought to 
the works at low cost. This is an element of importance, 
as it is extensively used in the lilast furnaces and in the 
basic processes. There is also an abundance of superior 
fire clay. 

Another important feature in connection with the value 
of the site is the proximity of many natural ravines of great 
depth and width, in which the slag and cinder and other 
refuse can l)e deposited at little cost, and surface land thus 
made suitable for building purposes, and thereby enhancing 
the value of the land. 

DEAINAGE. 

The drainage from the works is perfect, as the general 
level of the site is fifty feet above high water level in the 
river, thus ensuring the carrying off of surplus water and 
other matter, leaving the foundation pits, lowered tracks, 
etc., dry and firm. 

COKE OVENS. 

The coke ovens are situated GOO feet from the blast fur- 
naces, and the coke will be carried to the furnaces by rail- 
way up an inclined plane to stock houses at the rear of the 
blast furnaces, and thence elevated by steam hoist to the 
platform of the furnaces. 

General Arrangement of the Works. 

THE BLAST FURNACES. 

The six blast furnaces are placed in blocks of three, but 
stand in such position that each furnace can be shut down 
independently of the others, relighted, and yet in no way 
interfere with its neighbor furnace ; thus one blast furnace 



(102) 

can be used, or the full batteiy of six, as is most conveiiieut. 
Each furnace is provided with three stoves, and is capable 
of producing 1,200 to 1,500 tons of pig metal per week. 
The ore and lime is supplied to the furnaces in the same 
manner as the coke. Each set of three blast furnaces has 
three boiler houses adjoining each other. The two engine 
houses arc each 121 by 75 feet, and each contains ten verti- 
cal engines. 

Exceptional facilities have been provided for supplying 
the furnaces with material promptly and with ease, and for 
the removal of the cinder and refuse expeditiously, by plac- 
ing the blast furnaces 125 feet apart, thus allowing ample 
room for railway transportation. The cinder railway, and 
the railway for taking the metal to the converting house, 
are independent tracks, thus ensuring the utmost freedom 
of action. 

CONVERTING DEPARTMENT. 

The Bessemer converting department is situated 750 feet 
distant from the blast furnaces on an air line, but the metal 
is made to traverse 1,450 feet up an inclined plane by easy 
gradient to attain the elevation of twenty feet. There are 
six converters of ton tons capacity each, side by side. 

The main building is 400 by 170 feet. The spiegel cupola 
buildings or towers abut upon each end of the converting 
building, and arc eighty hy sixty feet, containing four cupo- 
las in each building, of the common form, for melting spie- 
geleisen. 

The molten metal is taken from the blast furnaces up an 
inclined plane in ladles on a car above and in line with the 
vessel in which the metal is to be converted, thereby effecting 
a large saving over the general practice in the United States ; 

1st. By avoiding the necessity of maintaining casting 
beds at the blast furnaces by a constant suj)ply of sand and 
lal)or for handiinir same and niakinir of moulds. 



( 103) 

2d. By avoiding the casting of pigs and the loss of heat 
occasioned hy their cooling ; the cost of labor in raising, 
breakino;, liftino; and loadino; of the piii's at the blast fur- 
naces, the unloading and reloading at converter department ; 
the raising to cupola charging door at least fifty feet above 
the floor line ; the maintenance of cupola ; the cost of fuel 
to effect the melting ; the maintenance of l)lo\vers supplying 
the blast; and the cost of steam and lal)or in running all 
the machinery named in this connection. 

This process is working with great success in England an^ 
on the Continent, and is in successful operation in Chicago. 

In line, and at the side of four of the six converters, 
two cupolas are placed, making eight cupolas for utilizing low 
cost southern pig when the same is for &*ale hi tlie market; 
and also for making addition to charge in the ladle wliju on 
its way from the blast furnaces to attain more uniform 
results. Should the charge from the l)hwst furnace be too 
high in silicon, a fourth moi'e or less of pig metal low in 
silicon can be tapped directly into the ladle from tl>e cupo- 
las, which are so situated that but little delay is caused when 
stoppage at the cupolas becomes necessary. 

The converters are placed in such a position that the vessel 
can be lowered on trucks by hydraulic hoists, located under 
the converters, and thence removed by railway to the lining 
department, there to be relined. 

In the meantime, a spare vessel is brought in from the 
lining department, is inserted in the place of the one 
removed, the bottom replaced and the sul)stitute vessel is 
ready for use, thus preventing any delay to the process of 
carrying molten metal direct from the blast furnace. 

A saving is also made in avoiding the Avaste of a large 
amount of refractory material usually thrown away in the 
present i)ractice of repairing the vessel while suspended 
in working position. 



(104) 

The lining department is 400 by 120 feet, situated in the 
rear of the converting house ninety feet distant, and is con- 
nected by lines of railway running from the hoists situated 
under the vessels in the converting department to the two 
turntables in the lining department. From these turntables a 
series of short railroad tracks radiate in such form as to 
accommodate ladles or converter bottoms, as the case may 
be. These ladles or bottoms are placed upon a truck made 
for this purpose, and are run exactly under a fireproof 
bonnet, which is supplied with gas from the gas producers. 

A feature of importance in the converting departmeut is 
the excellent means adopted for the removal of the slag 
with ease and expedition by means of the cranes and slag- 
cars ; for as a large amount of slag is formed in the basic 
process, especial facilities must be furnished for its prompt 
removal, and with as little cost as possible. 

The engine building for the converting department is 
150 by 108 feet, and contains four engines and six pumps. 
There are three buildings, twenty-five feet apart, for boilers, 
ea«h 150 by 45 feet, located near this department. 

The metal is poured into moulds made suitable for the 
various products to which it is intended. Such as ingots for 
plates, shafting, merchant bar, tire, wire rods, hoops and 
cotton ties, castings, blooms and billets for industrial estab- 
lishments, in place of iron, and which can be furnished 
them at less cost. The ingots are loaded on railway trucks 
and conveyed to the Siemens heating furnaces in the appro- 
priate department and deposited while hot in the furnace. 

For making steel castings the metal is carried in ladles 
on railway trucks direct from the converting department to 
the iron foundry, distant 250 feet, and there handled in 
usual way by steam cranes, and poured into the moulds. 

There .are three departments that receive the ingots dn-ect 
from the converting department, ^iz. : The large merchant 
mill, the plate mill, and the blooming and billet mill. 



( 105 ; 

LARGE :MERCHANT MILL. 

The large merchant mill, which can also be used as a rail 
mill, when necessar}', is situated in a building 240 feet wide 
at furnace end, and 330 feet wide at hot bed end, and which 
in the middle is 100 feet wide the total length being 500 feet. 
The furnace end of the building is 90 feet from the con- 
verting house. The type of machinery in this mill has been 
very successfully operated aV)road. 

The ingots are brought hot from the converting depart- 
ment and charged directly into the rear of the furnace by 
mechanical power, and are drawn from the front on the 
side next to the rolls. It is expedient that the ingots be 
jDlaced in the heating furnace while yet hot, and ample 
heating furnace capacity has been made to attain this object ; 
the molten metal is then allowed to "set" equally, all 
through, to the temperature desired for rolling. When this 
part of the process is properly performed, the amount of 
second quality product will be materially reduced, and all 
other things being e(|ual, it should not exceed one per cent 
of the finished })roduct. 

The ingot is taken from the heating furnace, bloomed, 
roughed and formed in a three high set of rolls, with 
hydraulic lifts and automatic "turning devil," Thence 
it is run on driven rollers to the reversing finishing rolls, 
situated at some distance behind the blooming rolls, and 
worked l^ackward and forward through the rolls on the floor 
level until it is reduced to the desired shape and size, such 
as angle, "tee's," square, round, flat, or concave, and to 
not less in weight than 1,000 pounds to the piece. This 
mill has a capacity of 400 tons per day, more or less, accord- 
ing to description of the order being worked. The rolls in 
this mill are driven by one direct engine and one double 
reversing enixine. 



( 106 ) 

PLATE MILL DEPAETMENT. 

The Plate Mill buildinsi; is 150 feet distant from the con- 
verting house, and is 300 by 210 feet in dimensions. 

The ingots or slabs are brought directly from the con- 
verting department hot, and are charged into the rear of 
the furnaces by hydraulic cranes situated between the heating 
furnaces with mechanical devices attached, rendering this 
operation comparatively cool and easy, no manual strain 
being required. 

The ingots are taken from the heating furnaces to the 
rolls by an overhead track or "telegraph" on an incline six 
inches to every twenty feet, rendering the transfer an 
easy matter. The rolls for the plates are designed to 
reduce the stock si^eedily while in good heat. The mid- 
dle roll is hollow and a continual stream of water passing 
through prevents this roll from heating to such a degree as 
to cause excessive expansion and contraction, the middle roll 
being subject to double the amount of heat of either top or 
bottom roll. There are two plate mills in line with each 
other having two-high breaking down rolls, and three-high 
finishiniz; rolls. 

The roughing rolls are thirty inches in diameter by 108 
inches in length, and the top and liottom finishing rolls are 
twenty-four inches diameter by eighty-four inches in length, 
the middle roll being twenty-six inches in diameter. The 
plates are handled by hj^draulic lifts throughout the whole 
process. 

Large floor room has been provided in this department as 
an essential for the cooling of plates so that they may be 
readily cooled for shearing, and the machinery for this ope- 
ration is of massive and modern design, of theWellman type. 

The bed plates under the rolls are of such length as to 
suit the finishing of i)lates as large as are used for boiler 



(107) 

beads, the largest at present being eiglitj^-four inches in 
diameter. 

Tank and boat building steel will also be made in this 
department. 

THE BLOOMING AND JJILLET MILL. 

The Blooming and Billet Mill is situated 530 feet distant 
from the converting house, and is in a building 145 by 165 
feet. The ingots are brought hot from the converting 
department on railway trucks, and charged in the rear of 
the furnaces and removed from the front next to the rolls. 

A thirty-six inch reversing train is turned in grooves to form 
slalis from twelve inches wide to four inches thick and up- 
wards for plates ; also, blooms six inches square or more for 
merchant bars of all sizes. In the case of billets, for hoops, 
cotton tics, wire rods, and other small work, the six inch 
lilooms are cut at a pair of steam shears, so placed as to be 
fed b}^ driven rollers, and the cut blooms pass into a twenty 
inch three-high billet mill, placed close to the shears, and 
there reduced to any size greater than one and a half inches 
square, at the same heat from the ingot, and are handled by 
hydraulic lifts while being rolled. 

The reversing mill is driven by a reversing double engine, 
and the three-high mill by a single engine. 

THE WIRE ROD MILL. 

The ^Vive Rod Mill is situated 1 35 feet distant from the 
blooming and billet department, and is in a building 565 by 
220 feet"^ 

The one and a half inches billets are brought on cars 
from the blooming department, and charged in rear of the 
Siemens furnaces, which are of ample capacity to receive 
and take care of the billets necessary to keep the rod mills 
full at all times. This department is supplied with two com- 
pound rod mills, and to each rod mill there are attached two 



( 108 ) 

continuous roughing trains placed side by side, and driven 
hy one engine witli connecting clutch between, so that should 
any repairs or fitting be required to the continuous train 
while ill operation, the other train can be turned on and any 
stoppage for that cause prevented. After the billet has 
made eight passes, or rather reductions, in the continuous 
train, it is conveyed to a three-high finishing train -fitted with 
"repeaters," and there reduced by S(|uare and oval passes 
alternately to a No. 5 wire gauge rod in the usual way. The 
three-high train is driven by a separate engine. The reels 
on which the rods are coiled are located near the sunken 
track, and the rods, when taken off the reels, are thrown on 
the open cars, weighed on track scales, and are ready for 
shipment. 

THE HOOP, COTTON TIES AND SJVIALL MERCHANT BAR MILL. 

The Hoop, Cotton Ties and Small Merchant Bar Mills are 
situated 200 feet distant from the blooming and billet 
dei^artment, and in a building 650 by 110 feet. The billets 
are brought on railway trucks direct from blooming and bil- 
let department, and charged in rear of four Siemens fur- 
naces, and removed in front and taken to the rolls. A 
sunken track runs through the department, so that the pro- 
duct can be readily loaded on cars with the minimum of 
handling. 

It may l)e remarked in this connection that all the tracks 
on which the railway trucks carry material for charging into 
furnaces, are laid on the general level. 

In the Hoop Mill six passes are made in a continuous 
train, and the finishing passes are made in the usual way. 
The two Merchant Mills in this department are sixteen inches 
and fourteen inches diameter rolls, respectively, for merchant 
bars, with a specialty for shaftings less than three inches in 
diameter. 



( 109 ) 

THE UNIVERSAL MILL. 

The Universal Mill is situated 780 feet distant from bloom- 
ing department and is in a building 280 by 150 feet. The 
steel is brought from the blooming department on railway 
trucks and charged into three Siemen's heating furnaces. 

There are here twin reversing engines with rolls and auto- 
matic tables fitted with feed rollers, and one hot straio-hten- 
ing table, for the manufacture of Universal bar. 

THE SHAPING SHOP. 

The Shaping Shop is situated thirty feet distant from the 
Universal Mill, and the size of the building is 280 l)y 110 
feet and is for construction purposes and where large mer- 
chant bars can be sheared to any curve or angle and punched 
to suit drawings and specifications that may l)e furnished. 

THE FORGE DEPARTMENT. 

The Forge Department is situated thirty feet distant from 
the shaping shop, and the size of the building is 280 by 90 
feet. 

Steel is fast taking the place of iron for forging. Its 
greater homogeneity, strength and consequent endurance is 
driving iron out of the market as surely as the steel rail 
has superseded the iron rail and steel wire has taken the 
place of iron wire. Piston rods, connecting rods, bars, 
links, shafts, cranks, axles, and general forgings will be 
ordered made from steel of a certain chemical analj^sis ; as 
in fact all industrial works m ordering steel for their products 
will specify the kind of steel they desire, which must contain 
fixed chemical proportions determined by analysis. In this 
way a product better suited for the resistance of specified 
strains can be furnished by the steel maker with better 
guarantee than can be done by the iron maker. 



( no) 

THE FOUNDRY, BLACKSMITH SHOP AND MACHINE SHOP. 

The Foundry, Blacksmith Shop and Machine Shop are in 
three separate buildings, thirty feet apart, lying parallel to 
each other, the blacksmith shop being located between the two, 
and they are bounded by the converting department on the 
one side, by the large merchant mill on another side, by the 
plate mill on another side and by the shaping shop and forge 
on the remaing side. 

The Foundry is 215 by 120 feet. 

A ti'ack runs through the centre into the machine shop 
and the roll turning shop. There are two large cupolas 
situated at one side in the middle and one small cupola at 
one end. To the charging platform in the yard there are 
two inclined planes for the convenience of the workmen. 
There are four steam .cranes, annealing furnace, two large 
core ovens, core benches, etc., and appliances for mould- 
ing by loam, dry sand, green sand and chill moulds. In 
one corner of the foundry is a crucible furnace and a 
small cupola for melting the material for brass castings, 
which comprises the brass foundry department. In another 
corner is a furnace for melting babbitt metal and here the 
engine and mill brasses of the works will be "babbitted." 
Besides making all the iron castings, ingot moulds, etc. 
required by the works, it is designed that this department 
shall also include steel castings in its product, not only for 
the needs of the works but for the market, such as wheels 
and pinions, dies and hammer heads. The manner in which 
the metal is carried into the foundry from the Bessemer 
department has been referred to, the open-hearth steel is 
brought in a similar manner from the Siemens-Martin 
department. 

The manufacture of steel castings in Europe has been within 
recent years enormously developed through the cheaper sys- 
tems of manufacture by the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin 



(Ill) 

processes, and the conclusion is justified that they will very 
largely take the place of castings of pig iron. Bessemer 
steel castings are not yet quite so common as those of the 
open hearth metal. The greatest difficulty experienced in 
adojating Bessemer steel castings is, of course, the blow 
holes caused by the escape of gases which have not reached 
the upper surface of the casting previous to its cooling. To 
remedy this difficulty various processes have been proposed 
and adopted. At Terre-noire, patient research has perfected 
the manufacture of steel without blow holes by using a sili- 
cide of manganese and iron, which gives to the product 
remarkable qualities. The silicon prevents blow holes by 
decomposing the oxide of carbon in dissolution, which 
tends to escape during solidification. The manganese re- 
duces the oxide of iron, and prevents a further reduction 
of gases by the reaction of the oxide on the carbon. In 
the decomposition of oxide of car1)on by silicon, silica 
was produced, and afterwards a silicate of iron, which 
remained interposed mtliin the steel. The manganese 
allowed the formation of a silicate of iron and manganese, 
which is much more fusible, and passes into the slag. 

The principal obstacle to the production of soft cast steel 
consisted in its excess of carbon. This was overcome at 
Terre-noire by the industrial production of alloys of iron, 
silicon and manganese, containing a specially high percent- 
age of this latter substance. This alone allowed of a suffi- 
cient quality of silicon being added near the close of the 
operation, without at the same time introducing too much 
carbon. Such an alloy has been produced, containing 8.10 
percent silicon, 14.50 of manganese, and 1.30 of carbon. 
Soft homogeneous steel, without blows of any degree of 
hardness can now be made at the mill of the manufacturers, 
varying in hardness from that suitaljle for projectiles to the 
softest qualities needed for any constructive purpose. This 



(112) 

steel is satisfactory as to its powers of resisting strains, its 
limits of rupture, and elongating properties, as well as 
in resistance to shocks. 

The greater regularity and uniformity obtained in cruci- 
ble steel castings, up to recently, apparently enabled them 
not only to hold their own as against the cheaper modes of 
manufacture, but even to find new applications almost daily. 
Steel -castings, however, have manifestly such a vast field 
yet to occupy, that the product of the crucible can only 
come into successful competition with those of the converter 
and the open hearth, where an exceptionally high quality of 
metal is demanded. 

The Blacksmith Shop is 215 b}^ 90 feet, and contains two 
heatinii- furnaces, one hiroe steam hammer and two smaller 
ones, and a number of l)lacksmith forges ; also, shears, 
benders, punchers, and other necessary tools. 

The Machine Shop is 215 x 90 feet and is two stories high, 
the second story being for the use of the pattern shop and 
drauohtino; room. It is furnished with a number of lathes 
of various sizes, planes, drilling machines, slotters, shaping 
machines, bolt cutters, pipe cutters, vise benches and other 
tools. 

A track runs through the centre of the shop and the tools 
and tracks are swept Iw four cranes. 

ROLL TURNING DEPARTIVIENT. 

The Eoll Turning Department is situated sixty feet distant 
from the shops just descrilied and a])uts on the building of 
the large merchant mill. Its size is 135 x 70 feet, and it is 
furnished with cranes, roll turning lathes for large and small 
work, and other appliances for the care and maintenance of 
the rolls of all the departments. The shops and roll turning- 
department are connected by railway tracks on the general 
level, for convenience in handling and removing materials in 
these departments. 



(113) 

THE BOILER SHOP. 

This is a building 150 x 90 feet and is 400 feet distant from 
the converting department, and it is about 250 feet from the 
plate mills. It is fitted with all the tools necessary for the 
manufacture of boilers, ladles, converters, etc., and is con- 
nected by a track with the general railway running through 
^11 the departments. 

SIEMENS-MARTIN PLANT. 

There is also a Siemens-Martin Plant located in a build- 
ing, 105 by 105 feet, and 100 feet distant from the 
blooming and l^illet department, and 330 feet distant 
from the phite mill department. Here is utilized all the 
scrap metal made al)out the works and the rejected product 
of the various departments, hy melting the scrap and other 
metals in the open hearth furnaces in the manufacture of 
ingots for spring steel wire rods, spring steel, agricultural 
implement steel, steel castings, and for the other purposes 
for which open hearth steel is preferred . 

It contains two ten ton furnaces and modern appliances 
for handling the ladles and ingots. The metal for open 
hearth steel castings is carried in ladles on railway trucks to 
the foundry as before described. 

LABORATORY . 

There is a laboratory connected with the works, where 
chemical analyses and tests of the raw material used in man- 
ufacturing the steel, and of the finished products before 
leaving the works, are made and recorded. 

In the mechanical testing house, where the bending and 
tensile tests are applied, duplicates ^vith stamped numbers 
are made and records kept of each. The testing, shap- 
ing and bending machines are specially designed for that 
purpose. 



(114) 

GAS PRODUCERS. 

The 160 gas producers, located in the extreme southwest 
corner of the works, are constructed upon the most approved 
principles, and are in sufficient number to supply the entire 
works with the gas required. The roof is in two sections, and is 
650 by 100 feet, supported by iron columns. The coal is 
supplied to the producers from cars on an elevated railway, 
with spouts of sufficient length to contain one car of coal, so 
that the dumping cars can be at once unloaded and returned 
to the mine, and the spout being in direct connection with 
the hopper of the producer, it is thus kept continually supplied 
with coal, which avoids the necessity of shoveling, and at 
the same time prevents in a great measure the formation 
of carbonic acid. This acid is a source of much loss, and is an 
annoyance to the melters, heaters, and gas men. 

BOILERS. 

The boilers suppl3dng the power to the machinery of the 
whole works are so placed as to obtain heat from the blast 
furnaces and the gas producers, this method being the 
cleanest as well as the most economical wavof makins: steam. 

Besides the boilers before referred to, located near the 
blast furnaces and near converting department, there is a 
boiler house located near the large merchant mill, which is 
150x54 feet. 

THE STORE HOUSE. 

The Store House is situated in about the centre of the 
works in a building 130 x 65 feet, which abuts upon the plate 
mill building. It is divided into compartments suitable for 
holding the various stores received and distributing the sup- 
plies to the various departments of the works. 

THE RAILWAY SYSTEM. 

The railway system is very perfect, supplying all the 
wants of an extensive rolling mill pUint in the way of car- 



(115) 

riage without turn tables. It consists of a track about five 
miles in continuous length and is operated by small locomo- 
tives. All the departments of the whole plant are con- 
veniently connected by railway tracks of the ordinary gauge. 
Raw material is brought in on elevated track 30 feet 
above the floor level. All the movin"; of the material 
in process of manufacture is handled Ijy pony engines 
on the ground floor tracks, and all fini^shed product is 
shipped from each department by sunken tracks four feet 
below the floor level. In some of the buildings the platform 
of the cars constitutes a portion of the building, thus form- 
ing a movable floor and making the transfer of heavy mate- 
rial easy from one part of tlie premises to another. 

In other buildings the top or jjlatform of the cars is a 
little below the general level and the product is easily pushed 
or rolled on slides to the cars. 

CHARACTER OF BUILDINGS AND SEWERAGE. 

All of the buildings are of brick with cast iron pillars and 
iron roofs. 

Sewer flues and gas flues extend through the works and in 
such positions that they can be reached for cleaning and 
repairs with ease. 

THE WIRE MILL DEPARTMENT. 

The Wire Mill Department of the Company is situated in 
the city of St. Louis, near the Union Depot Junction of all 
::vilways into the city. The works cover about four acres, 
:uid contain a rolling mill, four wire-drawing departments, 
one galvanizing department, four annealing departments, 
five wire-cleaning and drying departments, bale tie depart- 
ment, and wire rope department. 

The rolling mill contains two single puddling furnaces, six 
blooming fires, one two and one-half ton steam hammer. 



(IIG) 

seven heating furnaces, one two-high eighteen inch train of 
rolls, one rod train and four engines. 

The daily capacity of the rod mill is forty tons. 

The wire departments contain 450 wire-dra^\dng blocks 
and three engines ; daily capacity 100 tons of all kinds of 
wire . 

The galvaniziug department contains eight galvanizing 
pans, with appropriate furnaces and machinery ; daily capac- 
ity forty tons. 

The annealing de[)artments contain eight mutHor furnaces 
and twentj^-eight pot furnaces. 

The cleaning and drying departments are provided with 
numerous appliances for the proper cleansing and drying of 
the wire after it has been annealed. 

The l)ale tie departme-nt has a number of straightening 
machines, in which the wire is straightened and cut into 
suitable lengths for baling hay. 

The rope department contains six machines for making 
the strands and forming the rope. 

Hope of all sizes, from one-fourth of an inch diameter to 
three inches in diameter, and for the various pmposes for 
which wire rope is reqmred, is made in this department on 
machines of new and improved construction, so as to secure 
l^erfect uniformity of lay under severe tension, and without 
tension to the wires. The sales of the wire department of 
the Company now approximate $2,000,000 per annum. 

The quantity of steel now employed in the manufacture 
of wire has assumed large proportions within the past few 
years. So sudden, indeed, has been the increase that the 
steel works of the United States are not prepared at this 
date to furnish the wire rods required by the wire mills. 
The importations for 1881 were upwards of 100,000 tons, 
and in 1882 will exceed 150,000 tons. The most of this is 
used in the manufacture of fencing wire, and the adoption. 



(117 ) 

of barbed wire for fencing hy the farmers and the raih'oad 
companies is the cause of the enormous increase in the pro- 
duction of steel wire. It is only a few years since that wire 
rods were made from the product of the puddling furnaces, 
blooming fires and from piled wrought scrap iron, but by the" 
introduction into this country of the soft Bessemer steel 
wire rods from Europe, those processes have been nearly 
abandoned, and the attention of American steel makers is 
now prominently attracted to this new and growing industry. 
The importations are principally from Germany, and the 
soft steel now made especially for these rods by the basic 
process, is in high repute with United States wire drawers, 
for its toughness and ductility. It is very much softer than 
rail steel, containing but 0.10 to 0.15 per cent carbon, while 
rail steel holds 0.30 to 0.40 per cent of carbon, and the 
latter on this account is in disfavor with wire drawers for 
fencing wire purposes, by reason of its hardness and want 
of uniformity, which greatly enhances the cost of wire 
making through the frequent annealing and drawings it has 
to be subjected to in the process of reduction from the rod. 
Up to the last decade the use of steel wire was confined to 
the manufacture of needles, fish hooks, music strings, 
umbrella frames, and small tools. As the demand for such 
wire was increased by the growth of the railway and tele- 
graph systems, and by the development of our mines and 
collieries, greater attention has been paid in Europe to its 
economical manufacture, and to the production of a quality 
at once remarka])le for its strength and for its uniformity. 
Annealing, or cooling down slowly from a red heat, has the 
same effect on wire as on wrought iron, that is to say, the 
ductility and softness of both are increased, but their elas- 
ticity and breaking strength are diminished. Steel wire has, 
at least on an average, twice the ultimate strength of iron 



(118) 

wire, and a i^roportionately greater elasticity, comparing 
diameter with diameter. ' 

These quahtics allow steel wire rope to be made of little 
more than half the weight of iron wire rope, with the same 
ultimate breaking strength. The additional elasticity of 
steel Avire rope renders it much more supple, and less liable 
to injury through being bent over a drum. A steel rope 
easily straightens of itself after being 1)ent even to a small 
angle, which is not the case with iron wire rope. The dura- 
tion of all ropes is very greatly influenced by the many 
bendings to and fro to which they are subjected, and these 
influences are intensified by corrosion. Both the mechanical 
and the chemical sources of deterioration act in a less de<>:ree 
on a steel wire, as it is stronger and is at the same time less 
subject to corrosion, as the carbon it contains, however 
slight, impedes the action of rust. Steel wire ropes have 
come rapidly into use for mining purposes, especially in 
deep pits, where the light weight of rope is of such impor- 
tance both for safety and the economy of working. For 
railway inclines, lifts, and elevators, and ships rigging the 
same reasons have brought it into use, and it is also exten- 
sively used for hawsers, bridge cables, clothes lines, and 
sash cords. 

Furniture spi'ings made from high grade steel wire cause 
demand for a considerable amount of steel, and is required 
for making springs for mattresses and furniture. The wire 
is given the color of coppei* by immersion in a solution of 
blue vitriol, and it is then burnished by drawing it througli 
a hi)le in a die phite. Other large and growing demands for 
steel wire in very consideral^le quantities are : wire bale ties 
for l)aling h ly, binder wire for self-binding harvesting 
machines, check rower wire, l^right annealed and coppered 
wire for tinners, wii-3 for wire cloth, and wire for the manu- 
facture of wire woods s^enerallv. 



(119) 

CAPACITY OF THE WORKS. 

Name of Department. Tons per day of two turns 

Blast Furnaces 1.200 

Converting Department 1,000 

Siemens-Martin Department 50 

Blooming and Billet Mill 300 

Large Merchant Mill 400 

Kod Mill 200 

Plate Mill 100 

Small Bar Mill 72 

Universal Mill 60 

Hoop Mill 60 

Shaping Shop .* 

Forge 

Wire Mill Department 100 

SUMMARY. 

A careful consideration of the foregoing* description of 
this new American Basic-Bessemer plant will show it to be 
possessed of many unusual advantages. 

The site of the works combines in a remarkable degree 
the essential conditions of success in steel making. For the 
cheap transportation of raw materials to the works and of 
the finished products to market the water and railway facili- 
ties leave little to be desired. Inexhaustilile fuel of first- 
class quality for gas making and for coking is found upon 
the spot. Limestone of the liest description can be j^ro- 
cured within a radius of fifty miles of the site, and fireclay 
is abundant ^vithin one hundred miles from Harrison. Good 
and sufficient water is found at the door of the works, and 
the ore supply is obtained from mines within a radius of two 
hundred miles, some of the principal deposits being as near 
as one hundred miles. Located in natures greatest food- 
produciuii' section — the Mississippi Valley — food is, and 
always Avill l)e, cheap, and added to the eligibility of the 
site is the advantau'c of a vast home market for the product 
of the works within a radius of 300 miles. 



( 120 ) 

At present no steel castings are made west of Pittsburgh 
for the supply of the Mississippi Valley, and the ' United 
States manufactures no soft Bessemer steel suitable for 
industrial establishments, excepting the Albany and Rennse- 
laer Iron and Steel Co. at Troy, N. Y. This class of steel 
which by the present system of manufacture and supply is 
extremely costly in comparison with the cost of foreign 
material, will be a specialt}^ with the Harrison Steel Com- 
pany, and it is the intention of the company to branch out 
into the hitherto unessayed fields of manufacture in this 
country, and a ready market for all its production will be at 
once established, while the superior location of the plant 
will likewise entd^le it to compete successfully in all the other 
A'arious departments of steel manufacture. The Bessemer 
steel works of the United States have confined the product 
of their converters almost exchisively to the production of 
steel rails and rail carl)on steel, which have been made from 
pig metal too high in cost and with material exceedingly more 
costly than by Euro^jean practice, and the open-hearth steel 
works of this country also obtain their raw materials at so 
high a cost that the i)roduct of their furnaces is limited to 
certain specialties of high market value. It is a fact that 
the raw materials alone used by the Bessemer and open- 
hearth furnaces of this country cost as much as the finished 
product of similar furnaces in Europe. 

The cost of a ton of Bessemer steel rails in the United 
States varies according to the location of the mills in regard 
to raw materials and the adecjuacy of the ])last furnaces in 
connection with the works. Those most favorably situated 
and producing their own pig, make rails at al)out $40.00 per 
ton. Others not so Avell situated, and which buy their pig, 
range to $5.00 more per ton. There are other mills mak- 
ing their own pig, but which owing to their remoteness from 
some of the raw materials, can not manufacture steel rails 
at any less cost than those who buy pig. 



(121) 

At Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., in Europe, the cost of steel 
rails per ton is not quite $20.00, and the works would gladly 
make contracts for their total production of steel rails for 
the next ten years at $25,00 per ton on board of ship, and 
take all the chances of the future market. But as they are 
so well located, and own nearly all the raw materials they 
would require in that time, with a splendidly equipped works 
combining all the essential conditions for economical pro- 
duction, they would take little risk in the cost of manu- 
facture. 

This comparison amply demonstrates how much remains to 
be accomplished in the United States, how great the changes 
in methods of working must be, and how much the exterior 
costs, principally that of transportation, must be reduced 
before such a standard of results can be achieved. The 
North Chicago Rolling Mill Company has materially reduced 
the cost of production Ijy the adoption of improved methods 
of manufacture, but transportation still remains a heavy 
item of expense. Chicago is more advantageously situated 
for the procurement of Lake Superior ores than Cleveland, 
Pittsburg, and other eastern points, but the latter have bet- 
ter fuel facilities. All, therefore, labor under burdensome 
transportation costs, either on ores or other raw material, 
so that while the adoption of improved methods of manu- 
facture, or of the direct process of manufacture might 
secure to them some benefits in the way of lessening the 
cost of production, the disadvantages of location would still 
be retained. Favorable as is the situation of the Pittsburg 
Steel Works in certain respects, the carriage charges on raw 
material for the manufacture of one ton of pig iron approx- 
imate $10.00 per ton. Considering the high price of 
skilled labor in America, this renders high tariff protec- 
tion necessary to their very existence, as Europe in shipping 
to the United States can make available the whole leno-th of 



( 122 ) 

the coast line, with the manifold canals, large lakes, and 
rivers to reach by water the point nearest for shipment to 
the individual purchaser by railway, if necessary, thus 
decreasing to the minimum, the heavy cost of railway 
transportation. 

To compete, therefore, with the advanced mills of Europe 
and their many natural advantages, the requirements are 
few in number, but they are vitally essential. They may 
be rapidly summed up as follows : 

The works should be located specially with reference to 
the proximity of the raw materials to be used and the 
cheapness with which the finished products can be carried 
to their destination. This secured, methods and processes 
must be adopted by which the raw material may be trans- 
formed into the product without the expensive process of 
first converting into another raw material. The works must 
be situated where the accessibility of the fuel, the ore, the 
limestone, the water and the fire clay supply is best com- 
bined with contiguity to the market to escape the excessive 
costs of the handling and freight charges and of other items 
of avoidable cost, wliich now raise the price of the raw ma- 
terial in America to that of the finished product in Europe. 

The Harrison Steel Company, it is thought, combines 
in its methods, processes and site, all the conditions requisite 
to success. 



CONCLUSION. 



THE STEEL ElVIPIRE. 



The aim of this book has been to place before the pubUc, 
in as concise and satisfactory a manner as practicable, 
some of the more important facts and statistics relative to 
the steel workshops of the world ; that a better understand- 
ing might be gained of the various methods in vogue, and a 
better knowledge obtained of the truth, as to certain mat- 
ters, which for reasons now immaterial to explain, have never 
before been given to the public ; and if this hastily prepared 
work aid, ever so little, in the advancement of steel interests, 
its purpose will have been attained. In no instance have 
facts been stated as facts which can not be sustained by 
recognized authorities. 

The future of the empire of steel remains substantially 
unrestricted, the possibilities of still further conquests from 
the realms of the other metals limitless. The monopolistic 
traditions of the iron makers disappear, one by one, in the 
blue-tiamed crucible of the steel scientist. It is accom^ 
plished that high grade steel may be produced with about 
one-fourth the fuel and one-third the labor required in the 
manufacture of rolled iron, and the effect of this remarkable 
progress of the Bessemer processes upon the metallic indus- 
tries of the world, has been startling in its consequences and 
overwhelming in the consequential depreciation of many 



( 1-'^ ) 

millions of invested capital. For almost every purpose for 
which iron has been used in times gone by, steel, manufac- 
tured by these processes, is now preferred. It is applied 
to the making of armor plates, projectiles, ordnance, tires, 
axles, wire, stamped ware, forgings, castings, brake blocks, 
masts, spars and yards, sleepers, pens, cutlery, and bells; 
and for the construction of bridges, for railway purposes, 
for the building of ships, and for boiler construction holds 
unrivalled supremacy. 

The subject of the manufacture and manifold applications 
of steel seems practically inexhaustible, and the dominancy 
of steel where once it has attained a footing, is indisputable. 
Rich as the past has been in victory, genius and enterprise 
point to achievements of still greater magnitude. 

The versatility of its uses constitutes the chief value 
of this peculiar metal. The massive engine, towering in 
powerful grandeur, the greatest of man's conceptions ; the 
superb aerial pathways, vrith. their thousands of component 
parts, crossing broad rivers and above the high masts 
of ships, the needle of the housewife and soil blade of 
the husbandman ; the larger creations of commerce as well as 
the smallest, are produced in this magic crucible ; and there 
are not lacking those that predict the invasion of the dominion 
of copper, and even the displacement of silver in the manu- 
facture of articles of ornamentation. And difficult as it may 
appear to be to demonstrate the limits of the territory of 
steel usefulness, just as impossible, seemingly, is it, to set 
the limitation of its production. Recent discoveries have 
indefinitely increased the available resources. The eye of 
science, searching the recesses of the possible, has laid bare 
processes by which ores, hitherto unsuited to the manufac- 
turer, may be cleansed of their deleterious substances, and 
thus by one of the chemical trmmphs of the age, the cheap- 
est of iron ores will rank with those richer and comparatively 



( 1-^5 ) 

limited ores, that, until this discovery was made, were 
deemed unlit for the steel furnace. Of raw material, there- 
fore, the supply will be more than plentiful. But the fear 
of the effects of over-production need not be excited ; for, 
as the uses of the product multiply, and the cost of manu- 
facturing lessens, so will the applications of the product to i 
the necessities of life become enlarged. Of many chanires 
in the progressive movement of steel it is impossible at this 
time to take cognizance. The irksome work of the puddler 
is being superseded by less arduous, and in the main b}" less 
skilled lal)or. An estimate by one of the greatest authori- 
ties is, that to convert fluid cast iron into steel requires but 
one-third the labor that is necessary to convert pig metal 
into wrought iron, and that the fuel consumed in the former, 
is but one- fourth of that consumed in the latter operation. 
Economy of fuel at once therefore appears as a most impor- 
tant corolhyy of the advance of steel ; }^t even this great 
economic feature of production dwarfs in comparison with 
the impetus gained through the reputation this incomparable i 
metal is securing for lasting streno-th and endurance. ' 



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